Dim 8100 3C920 NIC and WinXP SP2: error indicated

[nick]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Dell Dimension 8100 w/WinXP.

I just upgraded to SP2, and now I'm getting an icon (with a yellow
exclamation mark) in my tool tray saying there's a problem with my LAN
connection: "Limited or no connectivity".

I'm not on a LAN, but I'm guessing this is related to my DSL connection to
my ISP (even though that connection appears to be working right).


If I right click on the icon and choose 'Status', the more detailed
explanation of the problem is "This problem occurred because the network did
not assign a network address to the computer", and warns that I might not be
able to access the Internet or some network resources.

If I try the 'Repair' option, I get a message about Windows 'Renewing your
IP address', but that always times out without success.

(I get the same 'Status' and 'Repair' indications by right-clicking on the
LAN connection in 'Network Properties'.

Looking at the 3C920 NIC in Device Manager, there's no error shown there.

I've downloaded and installed the updated driver for the 3C920 NIC from
Dell's web site, but that didn't have any effect.


NOTE: Don't know if this is related, but ever since switching to DSL (from
dial-up) last winter, there's always been a pause when booting the computer:
the WinXP desktop comes up, some of the tool tray icons show up, but then
the system just stalls for several seconds before there's a burst of disk
activity as Norton Internet Security and Stunnel start and put their icons
in the tool tray.

I've searched Dell's Knowledge Base and Support forums, Microsoft's
Knowledge Base, and Googled this newsgroup: didn't find anything that seemed
relevant.

At the moment I have no idea whether this is a Dell problem, a Microsoft
problem, or a problem with my ISP. As I said, my Internet connection seems
to be working OK, but that error icon bugs me.

Analog modems I vaguely understood, but the intricacies of DSL are an
unfamiliar world to me.

Any relevant suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

--
Nick <mailto:tanstaafl@pobox.com>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

This is just a guess, but is your DSL modem connected via USB? If so, then
the intergrated network card isn't needed and the IP address assignment will
fail. You can go into device manager and disable the network card and the
messages will go away.

Tom
"Nick" <tanstaafl@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:b7hnk01muthe3ud01076q0v351d9civt69@4ax.com...
> Dell Dimension 8100 w/WinXP.
>
> I just upgraded to SP2, and now I'm getting an icon (with a yellow
> exclamation mark) in my tool tray saying there's a problem with my LAN
> connection: "Limited or no connectivity".
>
> I'm not on a LAN, but I'm guessing this is related to my DSL connection to
> my ISP (even though that connection appears to be working right).
>
>
> If I right click on the icon and choose 'Status', the more detailed
> explanation of the problem is "This problem occurred because the network
> did
> not assign a network address to the computer", and warns that I might not
> be
> able to access the Internet or some network resources.
>
> If I try the 'Repair' option, I get a message about Windows 'Renewing your
> IP address', but that always times out without success.
>
> (I get the same 'Status' and 'Repair' indications by right-clicking on the
> LAN connection in 'Network Properties'.
>
> Looking at the 3C920 NIC in Device Manager, there's no error shown there.
>
> I've downloaded and installed the updated driver for the 3C920 NIC from
> Dell's web site, but that didn't have any effect.
>
>
> NOTE: Don't know if this is related, but ever since switching to DSL (from
> dial-up) last winter, there's always been a pause when booting the
> computer:
> the WinXP desktop comes up, some of the tool tray icons show up, but then
> the system just stalls for several seconds before there's a burst of disk
> activity as Norton Internet Security and Stunnel start and put their icons
> in the tool tray.
>
> I've searched Dell's Knowledge Base and Support forums, Microsoft's
> Knowledge Base, and Googled this newsgroup: didn't find anything that
> seemed
> relevant.
>
> At the moment I have no idea whether this is a Dell problem, a Microsoft
> problem, or a problem with my ISP. As I said, my Internet connection
> seems
> to be working OK, but that error icon bugs me.
>
> Analog modems I vaguely understood, but the intricacies of DSL are an
> unfamiliar world to me.
>
> Any relevant suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
>
> --
> Nick <mailto:tanstaafl@pobox.com>

 

[nick]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 05:25:41 -0400, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Tom Scales"
<tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote:

>This is just a guess, but is your DSL modem connected via USB? If so, then
>the intergrated network card isn't needed and the IP address assignment will
>fail. You can go into device manager and disable the network card and the
>messages will go away.

Thanks Tom, but unfortunately the DSL modem cable is hooked up to the NIC.

(At one point, I did disable the NIC and then reenabled it, in case that
would reset something; with the NIC disabled, I lost my Internet
connection.)

--
Nick <mailto:tanstaafl@pobox.com>

 

[nick]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hmmm...

I just did some more experimenting, and discovered that if I enable Internet
Connection Sharing for my AT&T DSL service, the error icon goes away. Now
I'm really confused...

I have one computer, hooked up (through an Ethernet cable) to one DSL modem,
which is hooked up to my phone line. No local network, no other computers.
So why do I get an error if I don't have connection sharing enabled?

I turned sharing back off for the moment, since I'm not sure what's going on
here.


Other info:

The DSL modem is a ZyXEL Prestige 600 series.

In Network Connections, I have the AT&T DSL service listed as type
'Broadband', with a Device Name of 'WAN Miniport (PPOE)'.

I also have a 'Local area connection', type 'LAN or High-Speed Internet',
with a Device Name of '3C920...' (the NIC).

The LAN listing is the one with the error condition; enabling 'Connection
Sharing' for the AT&T DSL service entry eliminates the error condition.

--
Nick <mailto:tanstaafl@pobox.com>

 

[nick]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Finally got it fixed.

Did yet another search in Dell's Knowledge Base, this time for PPPoE, and
document FA1072087 (the third or fourth I looked at) had the answer.

Basically, what I needed to do was assign a dummy IP address to my LAN
connection, and that stopped WinXP from wasting time and generating errors
trying to find an IP address that didn't exist (or something like that...).

(Apparently, Connection Sharing 'fixed' the problem by also assigning an
address to the LAN; now I get the same benefit without needing sharing
enabled.)

That got rid of the error icon in the tool try (which showed up after
installing SP2), and it got rid of the long pause while booting up (which
has been around since I first got DSL).

So I'm happy: no more error, and my computer boots up faster.

--
Nick <mailto:tanstaafl@pobox.com>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Nick wrote:
> Hmmm...
>
> I just did some more experimenting, and discovered that if I enable
> Internet Connection Sharing for my AT&T DSL service, the error icon
> goes away. Now I'm really confused...
>
> I have one computer, hooked up (through an Ethernet cable) to one DSL
> modem, which is hooked up to my phone line. No local network, no
> other computers. So why do I get an error if I don't have connection
> sharing enabled?
>
> I turned sharing back off for the moment, since I'm not sure what's
> going on here.
>
>
> Other info:
>
> The DSL modem is a ZyXEL Prestige 600 series.
>
> In Network Connections, I have the AT&T DSL service listed as type
> 'Broadband', with a Device Name of 'WAN Miniport (PPOE)'.
>
> I also have a 'Local area connection', type 'LAN or High-Speed
> Internet', with a Device Name of '3C920...' (the NIC).
>
> The LAN listing is the one with the error condition; enabling
> 'Connection Sharing' for the AT&T DSL service entry eliminates the
> error condition.

Internet Connection Sharing/Internet Connection Firewall Service, when
disabled or when the Windows firewall is disabled but a third-party
firewall is not automatically identified by the Security Service (not
fully SP2 compatible), locks down TCP/IP filtering for all connections
in the Permit None state on some computers. This, of course, leaves one
dead in the water, and most users have never even navigated to the
TCP/IP filtering properties, much less know of its existence.

Q

..