Heres a technical issue: Windows 2000 and the Internet

[thalaw2]

Years ago I built a P3 550Mhz, 400MB RAM, 16MB video card...a real powerhouse of a PC.  Anyway, computer life spans being what they are that PC is now used by my retired aunt to browse the internet.  It runs Windows 2000, no reason to upgrade, and worked fine up until recently. 

The problem I'm having is that it won't connect to the internet.  I have wireless access set up in my mother's house (been in place for about 4 years now) and the computers my mother and aunt use had no trouble connecting.  Recently my aunts PC can only connect to the router, but not to the internet.  I tried to bypass this with cable and the problem is the same.  I know there is no problem with the router, a Linksys Speedboaster, because i'm using it now as I write this.

I scanned for viruses and spyware on my aunt's PC and found a few bad ones....reinstalled Windows 2000 and was able to connect to download all the security updates.  However, now once again the PC wont connect to the internet thru wireless or thru cable....any clues? I'm on vacation from China and have to go back next week....please help fast. 

[zuludelta]

What error messages are you getting? Does Windows detect the network card or is it not recognizing the card at all? Do you get a "limited connectivity" message?

[zuludelta]

Here are some two quick fixes you can try that I find some people overlook when their network connection gets all buggy.

Procedure 1: Unplug the PC (don't just turn it off... pull the plug out of the socket). Wait 10 minutes. Re-boot, see if it changes anything.

Procedure 2: Re-set your winsock catalog. You can do this by bringing up the command prompt and then typing "netsh" (no quotes, naturally), followed by pressing the return/enter key. next, type "interface reset all" followed by enter. I don't remember how to do it for Win2000... it should either then proceed automatically, or you'll have to type in the next entries: "routing reset all" (followed by pressing enter), "routing" (enter), "dump" (followed by enter), and then "exit" (followed by enter). Finally, re-boot the PC.

If procedure 2 sounds a bit too arcane or if it doesn't work because I forgot to list a command, just download the winsock fix from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4372.html it's listed as a WindowsXP application but it should also work for win2000. Just download it to the faulty computer, run the program, and it should do the same thing that procedure 2 would do, except automatically and no messy typing in the command prompt.

[thalaw2]

Thx for the suggestions ZD.  I haven't gotten any error messages.  When I look at My Networks properties it shows that packages are only being sent and not received.  Also when I check the wireless software it shows that the connection is made from card to router but not from router to internet.  All devices show they are working properly.  I'm going to try the link you posted.  Thx again.

[zuludelta]

Lemme know how it works out. I'm pretty sure you've got a winsock problem the way you've described it. Just make sure you download the correct fix (the app is called "Winsock XP Fix 1.2")... the MajorGeeks site that hosts it has a crap layout and it's easy to download something else entirely from their site.

[Panther_Gunn]

It also sounds like one of those "Security Updates" is part of the problem.  Although time consuming, you could uninstall all of them, and then re-install them in stages, going from the ones that have been out the longest, to the most recent.

Are you using any firewall software on the PC?  It's possible something similar to the "Update" that came out in June (or July, forget which) for XP that pretty much killed the connection through ZoneAlarm, unless you lowered the security in the firewall.....at least, until Zone Labs put out an update of their own that fixed it, just a couple days afterward.  First saw it on the gf's SP2 machine, and when I got around to updating my SP1 laptop (gotta keep FF running, after all  :thumbup:), it happened there, as well, but not even lowering the security level fixed it....had to install the firewall update to fix that.

[thalaw2]

The download worked!  I forgot all about how to release IPs.  Thanks guys!

[zuludelta]

glad I could help  ;)

[thalaw2]

Same thing happened to my mom's computer...at least now I know the problem.  years ago i set the router to only allow 2 computers to connect.  So when I came in with my laptop and grabbed a spot that locked one system out.  I did it as a security measure.... darn past me messing things up for future me!  I need a good stiff drink!

[zuludelta]

Windows 2000 and Windows XP sometimes develop spontaneous winsock corruption (don't ask me why, cause I don't know) which leads to all sorts of networking issues. The solution many recommend is to use PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) protocol but it's a serious hassle, and resetting the winsock catalog generally works fine unless you've highly modified your registry for some reason. Allegedly, Service Pack 3 for Windows XP resolves the problem permanently.

Vista suffers from a similar problem (it's getting fairly widespread... google "vista local only problem" and you'll see literally hundreds of forum entries asking about how to resolve it and no official solution) but since it's built on new code that's different from that used in Win2000, I don't know what causes it and worse, how to resolve it. I've encountered two Vista computers suffering from problems similar to the one you encountered, and the only solution I've found to work consistently is to power down the PC and unplug it a couple of times (using the reset commands in command prompt don't seem to do anything).