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MechWarrior
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XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:00 am

First let me say that I no longer have access to this system so this question is mostly to see what I missed in trying to diagnose this problem because it is bugging me, and to see if anyone else has run into this type of situation.

system:

Core 2 duo
2 gig ram
xp pro

My friend just got a cable internet connection that he said was working fine. Until he decided he wanted to upgrade to the current version of firefox. So, decided to uninstall the current version from his system and that is when he lost all internet connectivity. He tried connecting through Internet Explorer and it just gave him the page that he was not able to connect. clicking on the diagnose problem would come up with the message to check your firewall and make sure ports 80 and 443 were not blocked.

so the first thing I did was to disable the firewall and to be sure no ports were blocked just in case --- no effect
I looked at his IP settings and he had a dedicated 192.168.x.x address assigned along with the dhcp manually assigned. So I changed both to automatic.
At this point I got a new IP address assigned after an /release and /renew ---- still no connection to the internet
I did a tracert to his provider and that worked. I also did a tracert to microsoft and to google ----- BOTH successful

I did eventually get him connected to the internet but that was by using a different computer that he got from his sister. so he is up and running. But the is bugging me so I was wondering if anyone had some insight or has run into this type of thing before.

At this point I know that his ip and dhcp is good and it is getting out to the net. But he still could not connect to the internet through Internet Explorer.
 
SoM
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:37 am

i'd tell you what to do, but it might not be polite :p

does he have to be with XP ?
cable provider ?
restart modem, ie unplug the power for 10 seconds
does he have to login to the ISP or is it automatic, PnP

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TwistedKestrel
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 1:07 am

A successful traceroute to an outside host, by hostname, is basically equivalent to a working internet connection. Are you completely sure there was no firewall in place? Sometimes there will be more than one, I know some versions of McAfee would add a firewall while pretending the built-in firewall didn't exist.
 
just brew it!
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:27 am

Check the network settings in the browser to make sure a proxy isn't configured.
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MechWarrior
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 1:46 pm

Thanks for the replies....

SoM: his provider is COX cable which does not require a log on. Unfortunately for that system it has to be xp. all his pc equipment is hand me down systems and parts.

Twisted: I did check for additional firewalls and he did not have any. the only AV software that he had was AVG Free which was already uninstalled. and I believe the free version does not include a firewall.

Just Brew it: I did not take note if a proxy was set up. I did not notice one when I went through his settings and changed his ip from static to dynamic. I did go through all the tabs. But if there was a proxy that I missed, would not the tracert fail because of it???

Personally I have been wondering if something more got uninstalled or messed up when he uninstalled firefox ( maybe a shared DLL or something ) since that is the exact point when he lost all connection. And it really puzzles me as to why he had a static 192.168 IP.
 
just brew it!
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 2:31 pm

Tracert (and ping) use their own special protocols, and would not be affected by an HTTP (or SOCKS) proxy. You need to check the network configuration of the web browser(s) themselves, not the Windows IP networking settings.

IIRC some Internet security tools configure themselves as a proxy in your web browsers, in order to examine (and potentially block) malicious content. In this case, a botched uninstall of the tool implementing the proxy could leave the browser(s) in an unusable state, but non-HTTP traffic like tracert would be completely unaffected.
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LoneWolf15
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 9:07 pm

There is malware out there these days that can mess up XP's network stack quicker than a hot knife through butter. Whether it be attempting to run the whole OS through a proxy (which, if the outside proxy breaks, kills the net) or other trickery, XP is just no longer a good OS to access the internet with.

With respect, it is time for your friend to upgrade to a system with a bit more RAM, a bit more horsepower, and Windows 7. It doesn't have to be anything nuts; you could even go used from someone's recycle pile. However, you're going to reap a lot of benefits from doing so. Perhaps in uninstalling Firefox, something happened that uninstalled a piece of potentially unwanted software your friend already had on the system that had inserted itself into the works, that killed the internet connection.
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MechWarrior
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Re: XP system unable to connect to internet

Fri Nov 28, 2014 9:42 pm

Thanks for the clarification. It makes total sense. the computer may have been a system that his friend or sister got from work when they upgraded their systems, which very well could have had a proxy set up in Internet explorer. or some malware that he picked up along the way in firefox. I totally agree XP is no longer a viable platform for internet surfing due to the lack of any more security updates. I have him up and running on another computer that is running windows 7 32 bit ( another former work computer). It is still a really old system core 2 duo with 3 Gb ram. But that is good enough for him. he does not play any games, just used the computer do research on the net, general surfing, some word docs.

When I get back down his way I may just fire up the old system to check on the proxy setting, but that won't be until late December.

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