LAN Not Connecting Correctly

[ZaLiTH]

Hi all, I have a very interesting issue with my Win7 Ultimate x64 machine. I've been reading through a bunch of posts both here and over at the MS TechNet forums, but none of them are quite the same as my issue... I'm hoping somebody else might have a few ideas I haven't tried?

To outline my problem; if I start up my computer with the network adapter enabled, I cannot connect to any network whether auto-assign IP or not. I have tried ipconfig /flushdns, followed by ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew without any success. This is where it gets interesting though, to connect here at work I first need to disable my Marvell Yukon adapter, restart my computer, enable the adapter, and then run the Network Diagnostics before it will connect. I tested it just now to confirm, I left it trying to connect on it's own for about 15 minutes and got nothing.. I ran the Network Diagnostics, and it suddenly connects and tells me it can't find a problem.

I have tried all this with the IPv6 protocol bot enabled and disabled, and it seems to give me less trouble with IPv6 disabled, but the problem persists both ways.

Anybody got a few ideas on what I can check regarding this....? I'm out of ideas now.

 

[ZaLiTH]

I just realised there was one thing I hadn't tried: I switched from the Marvell drivers to the Microsoft drivers and restarted now, I can connect if my adapter is enabled when I start up my PC, but I still need to run the network diagnostics before it will connect... And then of course, it doesn't find any problems.

Any ideas...?

 

[Bill2]

Hi Zalith,

Other than checking the usual (right IP/DNS configs, drivers, router setup etc.) I would try to figure out just what network diagnostics does that fixes the problem.

The Network diagnostics report can be accessed by "Event Viewer" tool in "Administrators Tools". Open the tool in Control Panel and click "Action" menu in Event Viewer tool, and then click "Open Saved log" option. Locate the report and click open.

 

[ZaLiTH]

Hi Zalith,

Other than checking the usual (right IP/DNS configs, drivers, router setup etc.) I would try to figure out just what network diagnostics does that fixes the problem.

The Network diagnostics report can be accessed by "Event Viewer" tool in "Administrators Tools". Open the tool in Control Panel and click "Action" menu in Event Viewer tool, and then click "Open Saved log" option. Locate the report and click open.

Well, the IP/DNS settings are pretty straight forward here at work; we have a DHCP server that assigns network addresses and settings system wide, I can't get to our router settings because I'm not involved in network administration here (I simply write the software user manuals)... Switching to MS's drivers seems to have made it easier to connect, I just need to test it a bit more and see how much else has changed.

I'm not too familiar with using the Event Viewer though, could you possibly tell me where the log would be saved for the network diagnostics function? A Google search helped me find the type of file it saves (etl file format), but I can't seem to find the location of the specific log I'm looking for...

 

[Ch@n]

Event viewer -> Application and services -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Diagnostics - Networking -> Operational.

 

[Bill2]

In Event viewer, create a custom view by filtering on Event Id 6100.

To open an event, double-click it.

In the Description box, problems are labeled as root causes and solutions are labeled as repair options.

 

[ZaLiTH]

Event viewer -> Application and services -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Diagnostics - Networking -> Operational.

So dre@ms does actually venture out of the Custom Sigs and Avatars thread then..? Lol.

Thanks, I think I found the same log information a slightly different way though... I restarted now with the intension of testing and taking snips of the messages as they progress. As it stands right now, using the MS drivers I have this as I log into Windows I see the screen shown in Network - 1.png attached below.

I left it as it was there while I went to make coffee and have a smoke (bad habit, I know...), and it was the same when I came back. At this point I can't even browse my LAN, I don't see any other computers. Then I clicked on the little red cross showing my lack of internet connection, and within 2 or 3 seconds of the diagnostics window showing, I see the message in Network - 2.png also attached below.

On the diagnostics results window, I clicked on the 'More Information' link and found the exact ETL file with information from this specific diagnostic. I'm not quite sure what to make of the contents, so both the originally saved ETL and the converted ETVX file that was created when I opened it are attached in a RAR file. Could somebody that understands the Event Viewer logs a bit better maybe have a look? I'm not really sure what I'm looking for..

 

[Bill2]

ETL files can either be read in Event Viewer itself or using some apps like Network Monitor.

Microsoft Network Monitor Download - Softpedia

Am on a dialup connection somewhere in Africa right now.
Will try to download and check your files. In the meantime try downloading from this link and see what you can figure out.

 

[Bill2]

Update: managed to download network monitor but it could not open either of the 2 files. Looks like you'll have to locate the event in the event viewer.

 

[ZaLiTH]

ETL files can either be read in Event Viewer itself or using some apps like Network Monitor.

Microsoft Network Monitor Download - Softpedia

Am on a dialup connection somewhere in Africa right now.
Will try to download and check your files. In the meantime try downloading from this link and see what you can figure out.

I remember what dialup connections are like, I definitely don't miss those days.. I still remember how amazingly fast a dual 64k ISDN connection seemed way back when. Back when 5GB in a month was a lot of data.. Lol.

Thanks for the link, just installed it now.. I'll restart and try running a capture in that while I try connect to our network again, maybe it'll tell me a bit more about what's going on.

Edit: Ok, this Network Monitor is confusing the hell out of me.. I'm not actually sure what I'm looking at / for in this list. I won't lose much sleep over having to run a Network Diagnostic everytime I connect to a network; well, I probably won't, it's more of an irritation than anything else. But I still wish I knew what was causing it...

Anyway, I'll trawl through the Event Viewer and see what I can find..

 

[Ch@n]

Event viewer -> Application and services -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Diagnostics - Networking -> Operational.

So dre@ms does actually venture out of the Custom Sigs and Avatars thread then..? Lol.

Someday or the other, I was also in the same thought.

Maybe I am more interested in GFX since my core job is networking and sick of TCP/IP, LAN, WAN and all other concepts. :huh:

But, you can see me active in all areas nowadays. Got some rep too other than for siggie and avatar.

 

[ZaLiTH]

So, just a quick update: last night at home I connected to the internet using my phone (HTC Touch) as a modem, and guess what, I had to run Network Diagnostics before Windows would show as 'connected'. Meanwhile, on my phone, the connection was active...

Although it's not a major problem, this is something that has only come up since switching to the Microsoft drivers for my Marvell Yukon adapter. Very interesting scenario.

With all the driver changing and testing I've done on this machine, and with a HDD and GPU change since my first install, I'm contemplating a format and reinstall anyway. Oh well, thanks for all the suggestions, but I think I'll just do a fresh install anyway.

 

[Ch@n]

All the very best pal..but sad ur issue was not resolved.