I seem to have fixed it -- at least both machines have been problem-free for
about a day!
I decided to uninstall TCP/IP (Control Panel, open the connection, select
Properties), and then reinstall. Simple to do on the first machine. The
second machine crashed violently when I tried to uninstall, which gave me a
clue that I was on to something.
I checked in the Device Manager, and it claimed that I had some Network
Adapters called IP Miniports installed, which it said were not working
properly, but which could not be uninstalled because they were needed for
bootup. Oh yeah, that makes sense. So, after consulting the Google
newsgroup archives, I used regedit.exe to blow away most signs of these
miniport thingies that don't work but are needed.
I then rebooted, uninstalled TCP/IP, rebooted, re-installed TCP/IP, and all
seems well. As to why this worked -- it's beyond me.
Al
"Al Cohen" <amc79_at_cornell.no.junk.edu> wrote in message
news:u6jhmu37ulhpfd_at_corp.supernews.com...
> I'm encountering an incredibly annoying problem, which seems to have
> something to do with Windows 2000 and my Linksys broadband router.
>
> A number of months ago I had three computers attached to a LinkSys BEFSR41
> broadband router: one each running Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Linux.
For
> some reason, the Win 2k machine, and only the Win 2k machne, would lose
its
> ability to "surf the web". In DOS I could ping IPs on the internet,
> including my name servers, but I:
>
> -- could not reach a site by browser either by IP address or domain name.
>
> -- could not ping a domain name in DOS, even though I could ping the
> corresponding IP
>
> The only fix was to reboot the Win 2k machine, which would fix the problem
> trmporarily. This would happen several times each day, and the Win 98 and
> Linux boxes were TOTALLY UNAFFECTED. It did not matter if I used static
IPs
> or DHCP. (In cas you're wondering, I'm running DSL on a fixed IP address).
>
> About 3 months ago I switched from the BEFSR41 to another LinkSys, a
> BEFW11S4 router with wireless and wired ports. The problem went away! I
was
> sooooo happy! I updated the router's ROMs, and still everything was
perfect
> for months...
>
> ...until a few days ago. All of the sudden, the problem came back! The Win
> 98 system had been replaced with a Win 2k box several weeks before, and
now
> both Win 2k machines are exhibiting the same behavior! Several times a
day
> they go on the blink, not necessarily at the same time. Linux box has no
> such problem. Only solution is to reboot! One Win 2k box is wired to the
> router, the other is wireless.
>
> Any thoughts are appreciated! Perhaps I should just switch all to Linux.
The
> distributions are getting easier to deal with, Star Office is pretty good,
> and this problem is driving me INSANE.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Alan Cohen
>
>
>
Received on Fri Feb 15 2002 - 10:51:01 PST