still no TCP on my work machine

[RGromlich]

Per a suggestion by TheOldeStonecat i got a totally up to date copy of Norton Antivirus and scanned the machine -- NO VIRUSes. So, while there is a KAK variant which kills you TCP stack, I don't have it ( or any others that Norton can find ) on my machine.

So - can anyone suggest any other reason why a machine would ping & tracert & access all network resources, but be unable to establish a TCP connection?

This machine worked 6 months ago on a DSL connection - now, nothing. Windows has been reloaded 3 / 4 times - IE 5.5 has been reloaded - the NIC was changed twice and new drivers were used each time. No joy.

We're pretty much out of ideas here - any suggestions ( including voodoo ) will be accepted.

Roy

[cyberskye]

What is your OS and what type of "tcp" connection are you attempting to establish?

when you reinstalled windows, did you format first or just install over top?

What protocols and services do you have installed and how are the bindings set?

Skye

[AmdAce]

If you are pinging, browsing, etc. then it sounds like you are establishing tcp/ip communication. Like cyberskye asked, what kind of "tcp" connection are you trying to make? Are you trying to browse the internet or find a system on a network?

At least you have some antivirus software on your system now ;}

[Stef]

What do the files c:\windows\services and c:\windows\protocols look like? Are they blank?

You would'nt be able to establish a TCP connection if the lines ip, tcp, and udp are missing. Also, if any port numbers where to be missing in c:\windows\services you would not be able to use the services (udp or tcp) that those ports provide.

Programs use these files to determine IP headers and service names or port numbers. If they are missing or incorrectly configured TCP/IP would be all screwed up.

Stef

[RGromlich]

I am "pinging" - can't browse. Attempting to open Internet Explorer results in a " page can not be displayed " message. This is going to MSN.COM -- same thing if I try to open a browser window on the LinkSys internal html server (which is in the closet next to me, and so doesn't involve the dial-up at all) - I get the same error message.

If I attempt to do a TIME check in NetLab I get a "Socket creation error".

Roy

[RGromlich]

The files you mentioned C:\WINDOWS\SERVICES and C:\WINDOWS\PROTOCOLS appear to exist, but they are not in any kind of readable format - nothing I have will open them in readable form.

Are they supposed to be ASCII, or what/ What should be in there?

Roy

[RGromlich]

System is an ASUS P-III 667MHz mobo with 256meg RAM running Win98SE.

As I said before, about 6 months ago, before we moved to the new building, this system accessed the Inet over a DSL line -- no problems. Now we are forced to use a dial-up 56K, which works on other machines around here. From my machine I get the "can not be displayed" error message.

I re-loaded Windows - both from our internal network and from a CD with exactly the same result. I really don't want to fdisk & format because there is a lot of stuff on this computer which we no longer can find the install disks for, so I am not certain how I would rebuild he thing.

The only protocol I have installed is TCP/IP - it is bound to "Client for Microsoft Netwok\rks" and "File & Printer Sharing". Both of these functions work just fine - I can access all the internal shares and write to the printer. Just no internet access through the gateway computer.

As for the Inet connectio - if I try the Wizard it goes through all the normal steps, then tries to open MSN.COM and goes directly to the "can not be displayed" eror message.

Roy

[cyberskye]

Can you ping yahoo.com? If you get the unknown host error it might be your dns - that often-times changes when you change ISPs.

Skye

[Stef]

Originally posted by RGromlich
The files you mentioned C:\WINDOWS\SERVICES and C:\WINDOWS\PROTOCOLS appear to exist, but they are not in any kind of readable format - nothing I have will open them in readable form.

Are they supposed to be ASCII, or what/ What should be in there?

Roy

If the c:\windows\protocols file contained the line

icmp 1 ICMP # internet control message protocol

note: that's how it looks on Debian GNU/Linux

You would be able to ping and trace network routes.

However, if a malacious program was to delete the lines necessary for ip, tcp, and udp protocols you would not be able to surf the net. And, if that same program was to change the file attributes to read-only a Windows re-install would not overrite it

You can view c:\windows\services and c:\windows\protocols by using notepad. Even if the file has no extension it is just a plain text file.

Stef

[RGromlich]

OK - we may be onto something here.

Both files exist - neither is readable text, so I guess something has trashed them.

Next step is to check those files on one of th ecomputers that IS working correctly - logically that should give me what I need to recreate them.

Thanks - I'll check that next week when I get back to work.

Roy