Unable to repair home network.

I have XP Home on one machine, XP Pro on the other. (Yes, I know they're outdated etc etc, but I simply can't afford to buy a new operating system nor modern computers on which to run it/them.)

It has been working well, but the system now tells me that "Upstairs (one of the machines) is not accessible. You might not have permission etc etc ..... The network path was not found."

The same message is displayed when I try to connect to this one ("Downstairs") from the other.

I have gone through the Network Setup Wizard procedure again on both machines, but that has made no difference.

There's something odd about both machines. Some months ago, one of them acquired a second Network Connections icon in Control Panel. Placing the mouse over one of them displayed "Connects to other computers, networks, and the Internet. ", mouse over the other said "Configures network software."

I have no idea which one was the first icon.

The same anomaly has now happened on the other computer. The displayed information with the mouseover is the same as on the other machine, i.e. the two icon's displays are different.

The Network Connections icons Downstairs open up to produce identical windows which display the LAN. Clicking on the second Network Connections doesn't open up a second window, it seems to use the same one.

The Network Connections icons on the Upstairs computer both open to display two icons, the LAN and the Internet.

The LAN works correctly to connect Downstairs to the router and thence to the Internet.

The LAN between Downstairs and the router is through a pair of adapters/modems which exchange data over the a.c. supply.

Upstairs is connected directly to the router with a (Ethernet) cable. It connects ok to the Internet too.

I would like to know, of course, how to get the two machines talking to each other again, and why/how they both exhibit two Network Connections icons.

:confused

 

With problems like this one - not that I've ever heard of these symptoms before! -we usually start by examining your network config on both machines. To do this type ipconfig /all into a command window and hitting Enter. Right click and Select All. It's now on the clipboard and can be pasted into a reply here. You may need two posts to complete this as we need the config for each machine.

 

Ok Earthling. Here they are:

 

Well that hasn't done much to unearth the problem as all of those settings are just fine. (puts thinking cap on) :confused

 

Could be a firewall issue. What firewalls are running on the two machines?

 

Even easier, just kill the firewalls temporarily. You will still be protected as the router will have a hardware firewall and NAT.

 

I've been using Window's firewall on both.

Just disabled them but without success.

But .....

I had also installed AVG free, which doesn't have the firewall available.

I just remembered that I had recently paid to upgrade the downstairs one and took a look at the settings.
The firewall had taken upon itself to disable file and printer sharing.

I enabled it and now have the machines talking to each other again.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

I was so pleased at getting them talking again that I overlooked the two Network Connections in both control panels, so must assume that this is unrelated.

Do you have any thought about this?

 

No. I just haven't come across this one before. Interesting that this has happened on both systems but isn't having any effect on connectivity. If I come across anything I'll let you know.

EDIT - just a thought here. Could it be that one icon is for your Ethernet connection and the other for a wireless adapter? If so just disable the wireless adapters. Somehow don't think that's it though.

 

I don't think so. The two Network Connections icons on this machine have only the LAN icon inside.

On the other machine they both have the LAN icon and the icon for the Internet.

 

Guess what ..... the two machines no longer talk to each other :mad

File and printer sharing is still enabled on downstairs AVG. :confused

I think I might reinstall Windows upstairs.

 

Hope I'm not too late :-o Do you have a restore point available that pre-dates upgrading AVG on 'Downstairs'? If so I would give it a go because, as I understand it anyway, this problem only arose after upgrading AVG to the paid version. Might also be worth doing the same on Upstairs so both systems are more or less in the same state. I certainly wouldn't reinstall either just yet. Also, are you quite sure you are only running one AV on either machine?

 

Not too late, thank you.

I should have said that it was XP Home upstairs which I am thinking of reinstalling. There are very few applications installed, so the additional time involved in reinstalling them won't add much to the inconvenience.

I did have Lavasoft's AdAware installed on both machines.
During the installation downstairs, it recognised that another antivirus program was present and gave me the choice of continuing the installation as a secondary (or something similar) system; which I did.

I have uninstalled it, and everything which its uninstaller negelected (I use IOBit's uninstaller which usually finds lots of leftovers).

I had already uninstalled it upstairs.

I came came across this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825826 while looking for useful information.

Although it mentions icons, quite a bit of it refers to network related files. I have tried a few things but so far everything is doing no more than intensify my frustration.

I looked for hidden files in device manager - there didn't seem to be any, but I found some yellow warnings. I will attach a screenshot.

I also found that IE(8) on Upstairs, when it couldn't connect to the internet, displayed, in Tools, something to the effect of "Check Network Settings", which strangely doesn't appear in IE on Downstairs - perhaps because no such check is necessary?

I will attach screenshots of its findings. Lots of things wrong, apparently, none of which I know how to fix.

 

Won't be online now until late this afternoon but after a quick look at your Device Manager a reinstall might be a good idea if you have the time - all those SPs and updates :eek

 

I'm pretty seriously confused here. Previously both machines had internet but couldn't talk to each other. Fixing your AVG firewall settings corrected that, but only temporarily it seems, and now I think you are saying Upstairs doesn't have internet either.

On Upstairs can you open a command window and type ping 192.168.1.3 (that's the downstairs machine).

Then ping bbc.co.uk

Let me know the results

 

Yes, I'm afraid that I will have to bite the bullet.

Pinging Downstairs produces the message "unable to contact IP driver. error code 2"

I uninstalled AVG from Downstairs, and have tried to do so from Upstairs. Just can't do it. There are still lots of it left. I used GiPo's Move On Boot, which has always done the trick for me in the past, but it hasn't managed to shift any of the remaining files. I tried removing each file in the folders one by one, but it won't let me and it ignores GiPo.

Another symptom which has arisen is that Upstairs now takes a long time to fully reboot. From pressing Reboot (I have created a desktop shortcut) it takes about 1m 10s to display an incomplete desktop, after which the disk activity l.e.d. calms down to a brief flash every second. There are a couple of applications which haven't yet appeared in the task bar.

After another 1m 15s the disk activity l.e.d. gets all excited again and continues to do so for something over a minute, towards the end of which the remaining couple of applications' icons appear.

There is clearly, or has been, much mischief afoot.

I have unplugged Upstairs' Ethernet cable in case it tries to do anything to Downstairs, and will leave it so until I have reinstalled Windows.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am unable to restore either machine. I get the "unable to ..." message for the several restore points I tried.

I have a long night to look forward to .....

 

Have you not tried the AVG removal tool?

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/utilities

 

I was just about to start my vigil when I heard the New Mail klaxxon from MailWasher. (Mailwasher's resident audio alert is such a pathetic thing that I replaced it by something which can't be ignored.)

No I hadn't. Thank you for that. It's now on a USB drive which has been traipsed up and down stairs innumerable times over the last few days in its guise as a surrogate network.

I shall use that tool before copying the few files I want to rescue.

Here we go .....

 

Getting there. There were more than 140 updates for XP Home.

Machines are talking to each other now.

The remaining mystery is the two identical Network Connections in Downstairs' Control Panel.

I wonder if I should delete all the entries in Device Manage -> Network Adapters, and reinstall the drivers?

 

I'm surprised at only 140. Are you now up to service pack 3?

I think that's quite a good idea about uninstalling all the network adapters and scanning again.

It's not clear as to the cause of all of this but AVG may have been implicated. I understand MS are supporting MSE for a year after April 8 so you could use that short term. Either way it would be a good idea to image both systems when everything is working.

 

The first updates were downloaded and installed without their number being displayed. The update alert popped again up soon after installing them. This time, the number was shown.

I tried to uninstall all the network adapters, but succeeded in removing only those for the LAN. The system wouldn't allow me to remove the others.
So that has not made any difference.

There are many report on the web about this problem, but the frequently suggested remedy of removing a .cpl file from the system32 and the dll cache folders hasn't worked. It reappears on reboot. It's like trying to drown a fish.

Yes, I have become suspicious now about anything "AVG". Everything associated with it has been removed. I may as well reinstall MSE. At least it seems to have benign.

 

You haven't said whether you are now at SP3 or not :confused SP3 makes a big difference as to what you can and cannot do. From the little you have said about the updates I'm suspecting you may still be at SP1 or even pre-SP1. This does need to be resolved before you try anything else.

 

Excuse that oversight.

It's SP3.

This is Downstairs' c.v.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DOWNSTAIRS
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Compaq dc7100 SFF(PE270ET)
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~2994 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 786C1 v02.15, 07/08/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name DOWNSTAIRS\user1
Time Zone GMT Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 4,096.50 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.96 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 4.45 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys