RE: Win XP no longer able to access LAN with win 98SE machines

From: Tomorrows_Technology (TomorrowsTechnology_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/01/04 

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 10:51:03 -0700

STOP THE PRESS I found your problem. You may need to reenter your network key
for your wireless adapter. If that doesn't work the read the rest of this post

Hi Andrew,

Yeap, I tried all of the suggestions including the restore option. That one
caused me to have to call Linksys (Cisco) to get an application to clean the
registry so that I could uninstall my wireless adapter and reinstall it after
it stopped working altogether.

To get to the point, The new wireless connection icon shown when you view
your connections is not the problem, I have both a wireless adapter and a
wired adapter installed on one of my XP machines and the upgrade to XP SP2
just changed the graphic of the icon for the wireless connection (the
properties remained the same).

You're correct, I do have a broad band connection and one of the ports of
the wired router is connected to port one of a wireless router, the wired
router acts as a gateway to the internet.

if your wireless router is directly connected to the internet then you
should NOT disable the firewall of your router. Have a look at XP SP2's new
settings for the Windows firewall, you can now select the ports and programs
you want to allow to communicate - there was probably a way to do this before
but I was not aware of it. If you're familar with a firewall such as McAfee's
you probably now how to allow ports and programs to communicate past the
firewall, if not, I strongly recommend that you do a little bit of research
first.

At the end of my lengthy comments there is some good news. Like you I was
very upset over not being able to get help until I went to the Windows XP
support center and was able to start an online "Chat" with a level 1
Microsoft support person. He could not help but he gave me a case Id and a
level 2 support person has now taken on the problem.
I tried to paste the link to the online chat facility but it doesn't work so
you'll have to go to http://support.microsoft.com and select "Contact a
support professional by E-mail, Online or phone".
This should be done from a machine on which XP SP2 was downloaded otherwise
you won't get the "start chat" button automatically (presumably. I tried it
from a Win 98SE machine and I only got the email option). You should also
have a Microsoft Passport (if you don't have one, sign up for a free hotmail
account and you'' have the passport).

I'm begining to understand the problems a little better so if I come across
usefull info relating to your case I'll post another reply.

In the meantime I would suggest that your problem is related to your
adapter's settings or your router's settings because you cannot "ping" the
machines.

Assuming its the adapter's settings that are at fault, check whether it is
working by seeing if you can access your router using an internet explorer
window and typing in the router's ip address - you can turn off your
broadband modem while you do this if you're uneasy about such a procedure but
there really shouldn't be a security issue. Remember to delete the automatic
entry (if one normally pops in) in the internet explorer address line before
typing in the ip address. If you successfully see the router's logon window
(remember when you first set up the router) then your adapter is ok and your
router is ok.
Open a command window and type in "ipconfig" and note the ip address
assigned to the adapter on each of your machines. If your router is set up to
dynamically assign ip addresses (DHCP enabled) you should see an entry. If
everything is ok at this point and you cannot ping the machines from each
other, check to see if you have some other firewall software installed - at
one point McAfee Firewall was prohibiting some of my machines from
communicating on my LAN, I had to 'train' the firewall to allow communication
of that type.

I'm only familiar with Linksys and Belkin routers but I was told by Belkin
support that using static ip addresses for Win XP machines on lANs with
machines with other OS is a good idea - make sure that you don't have ip
assignment conflicts.

Now if the adapter works, there is no third party firewall and Windows
Firewall is set to allow your networking components to communicate and you
still cannot ping one machine from the other I suggest you power cycle off
all the components in you lan (turn off computers, router, etc. and turn on
again after several seconds) - this has mysteriously worked for me in the
past, apparently the various components reset some parameters when they have
been power cycled.

I apologize if you've tried all of this already but without knowing more
about your setup I can't make any more usefull comments. The fact that you
cannot ping the various machines on your LAN would lead me to focus on
solving that particular issue. I am not a professional so its only a
suggestion.

Regards,

Dave Robinson

ps - I assumed that your wireless router and adapter are set for infructure
mode and that if you have WEP enabled that the correct key is entered for
both the adapter's utility and the router. If there is more than one wireless
network in your area, you may find that the adapter is prohibited from
connecting unless the correct key is entered

"Andrew Ward" wrote:

> With an IP address of 192.168.0... I guess you have a
> Broadband router? I'm in the same boat having downloaded
> SP" on both machines. The laptop uses the wireless
> connection to the router. I can't even ping one machine
> from the other. The only thing I have noticed on the
> laptop is that SP2 has replaced the local connection with
> a wireless connection, and somehow think that this maybe
> the cause of the problem.
>
> It's nice in a way to find that I'm not alone that SP2
> has caused such a major problem, but I'm concerned and
> annoyed that even on these newsgroups - where there seem
> to be a high number of incidents that after downloading
> SP2, previously working networks no longer connect and
> people are unable to restore themselves to the status quo.
>
> The suggestions that I've received so far have all been
> futile. They've ranged from disable the firewall
> completely (weird since that was one of SP2's main
> selling points), make changes to the TCP/IP settings -
> none of which have worked. I've run and re-run the home
> networking wizard until I'm blue in the face - and the
> two computers obstinately refuse to connect.
>
> The latest suggestion on this group from an MVP was to
> restore the computer to the point BEFORE SP2
> installation. That's fine - but then I also lose any
> programmes which I have installed since then - and there
> have been a couple which I don't want to lose.
>
> It does seem from reading these newsgroups loss of
> network is a major problem, and this should be mentioned
> BEFORE you even attempt to download SP2. Meanwhile there
> are dozens of people who are bereft of their home
> networks and unable to restore them. It's not terribly
> good Microsoft. Contacting my own hub support company
> will elicit the response that they can't comment on home
> networks - and in any case it's a Microsoft problem -
> Microsoft support will no doubt come back with the
> response that XP is provided through OEM and I should
> contact my supplier - who will no doubt return the
> message that I should contact the router support. There
> is a great deal of buck passing - and very little support.
> >-----Original Message-----
> >I cannot use my LAN either after updating XP Home and
> Pro
> >to Service Pack 2. If you find anything to remedy this
> >problem, please let me know. My LAN says it is not
> >connected or has no connectivity! But, Everything is
> >still connected. THANKS! ....Rick
> >