Network help needed

[Ex-Bay]

It's supposed to be easy, making a little home network. These days it may be, what with Wireless (802.11) all over the place. but mine has been installed a little longer and has wires. I have two PCs, both running XP pro, SP2.
Each is wired to a DES-1005 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch. The switch goes to my Mentor ADSL modem (actually it's a router as well, but please let that pass).

The B machine, located in the back bedroom, is an HP thing which was put up to run the Folding @ Home and a bit of odd tinkering from time to time (Virtual machine and Vis Bas, etc.).

I've had a 'guest' staying with me. A pal of mine got chucked out of his house and needed a place to lay his head for a while. The snag is, he had a com-puter at his house (and I'm sure he didn't know anything about it). So my poor little HP got all manner of nasties as a result of his attempts at using it. After a lot of effort, (and some good help from the Goat), I've installed things like CCleaner, Zone alarm, AVG and so on and it worked OK.

But it will no longer talk to the 'net. Somehow, he's managed to get a box up in the "Broadband connection" with HIS name on it (as if trying to make a private system). I know the DNS and IP addresses of the switch and the modem, and they are all in the right place (I think).

So the question is, chaps & chapesses, how in God's name do I cure the thing and get back to a machine which connects properly.

 

[Larwm]

Where have you put these IP addresses? It maybe worth trying them on DHCP. Also Windows firewall can be a right bugger sometimes!

 

[shettie]

firstly - Right click on "My Network Places" select properties - are the "local area connection" icon screens light blue? If they aren't - right click on that icon and see if the menu that comes up says "Enable" (if it says disable - it's connected...) the other thing to check - if you don't have the little flashing light network indicator on the bottom right of the screen - right click on the LAN connection icon again - select "properties" and at the bottom of the dialogue box that comes up - click the " show icon in notification area when connected" box - this will ahem... show the icon - and you'll be able to see if traffic is being passed over the LAN - by the way - you got any lights showing on the network connection on either the router - or the back of the PC?

 

[monobrow]

Also Windows firewall can be a right bugger sometimes!

Yup, switches itself on when it likes just to cripple the connection. DT_Xtremez_31:

Right, First off go on the working PC, go to Start menu, then Control Panel. Double click the "Network Connections" icon. Right click the LAN you want to setup and hit properties.

Find "TCP/IP" in the list, then again, properties.

Make a note of what you see here as it'll pay dividends later!! If they are both set to automatic, then open a dos prompt and type in IPCONFIG to get most of the details.

Do as above on the funked one. IP addresses should be in the same range, so for instance the working one is 156.234.1.33 then make the funked one 156.234.1.34 as long as this doesn't conflict with anything else (switch, modem, etc.....)

Biggest one is the default gateway. That should be the IP address of the router / modem. Insert the DNS settings as req'd.

Click OK.

Go to the advanced tab and then settings for windows firewall. Make sure it's off if you have a firewall installed (like you said you have).

Hope this helps somewhat.

 

[Ex-Bay]

Thanks, chaps, I''ll give that a go.
Meanwhile, further information is to hand. Internet Explorer works, Firefox does not, neither does F@H.
Get strange pop-ups (the latest was for either the American Red Cross or a Casino).

Find "TCP/IP" in the list, then again, properties.

Make a note of what you see here as it'll pay dividends later!! If they are both set to automatic, then open a dos prompt and type in IPCONFIG to get most of the details.

Results: Obtain IP address automatically,
Obtain DNS server address automatically
Automatic private IP address.

 

[MontyPlumbs]

Sounds like a spyware or virus infestation to me.

 

[shettie]

Yup - me too - search for Lavasoft on the web and download adaware - run that

 

[CodeMonkey]

personally i would follow mono's advice, sounds like it could be a possible address conflict ie only one PC can have 1 IP address or it will go wibble.

it is also likely that the suspect goosed PC might not have a valid address,

start > run then type ipconfig

if the address looks like 169.*.*.* (* being any address) then the card is NOT talkiing to and getting an address from the router.

Make sure that in the connection properties for the LAN connection that TCP/IP is present in the list of protocols.

 

[Ex-Bay]

Yup - me too - search for Lavasoft on the web and download adaware - run that

Done.
And a general clean-out as well (CClean & AVG). I think I have now fixed it.
There's a bit in Zone Alarm which asks if the program should be allowed to connect to the net. So I clicked Yes and so far so good.

Incidentally, all the IP & DNS addresses are on "automatic", and I know the ones for the switch 7 router.

Anyone know how I can access port 8080 serttings? It's what F@H seems to want and I cannot find where to set it up.

Thanks chaps.

xb