Network misconfiguration - wrong connection state and lots of adapters

[AlanQ]

Hello there.

I'm having a problem with a Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit install that is almost vanilla, I've only installed the drivers, a browser and some minimal things.

The machine connects via pppoe to the internet, and it never really worked properly, the first problem is Windows doesn't detect when it's connected to the internet, sometimes I'm browsing the web and the 'dial up' dialog will pop up, and also, the yellow mark on the tray icon is always there.

Another problem I'm having is that every time I connect to the internet Windows create a new "isatap tunnel adapter", so at the moment they're almost 400 what's really annoying when you run ipconfig and I suspect it's not only related but a symptom of a bad configuration.

I wasn't really caring for the problems since I don't use the machine often and until now it was only an annoyance that was very rare to happen, but I need to install VirtuaBox in that machine now and I think the misconfiguration is somehow affecting that, because it will fail to install informing that it was not able to stop the iphlpsvc service, which is related to networking, so I think that somehow is linked to the whole network configuration problem.

I would like to solve these issues, specially the internet connection detection problem (so Windows knows when I'm connected) and most importantly the VirtualBox problem. I've tried to skip that message (by clicking retry twice) and also manually disabling the service, but when I do that the network won't work in VirtualBox. I've installed VirtualBox on other machines and I never saw such an error, and some machines are very similar (in hardware specs) to the one that's having the problems, the only difference is the pppoe connection; I configured it with the Windows wizard though and no error whatsoever popped up, I just entered the username and password and it was working, but since these problems are happening, perhaps something went wrong and I ended up with a bad configuration.

Perhaps there's a way to reset all the networking configuration, I've been told to run 'net int ip reset' but I didn't try that yet since I don't have access to the machine at the moment.

Any helps is appreciated, however, I would like to avoid having to reinstall the whole system.

Thank you in advance.

 

[GokAy]

Try the first 3 options in Download Complete Internet Repair - MajorGeeks

Report back

Also there are these commands:

netsh winsock reset all
netsh int 6to4 reset all
netsh int ipv4 reset all
netsh int ipv6 reset all
netsh int httpstunnel reset all
netsh int isatap reset all
netsh int portproxy reset all
netsh int tcp reset all
netsh int teredo reset all

 

[AlanQ]

Thank you GokAy. I'll run the program and the commands (if the program doesn't fix the issue) probably tomorrow and I'll make sure to let you know.

 

[GokAy]

Forgot to say, create a manual System Restore point before running them just in case - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

 

[AlanQ]

Ok, I ran the utility and the yellow mark disappeared from the network icon in the tray, however, it returned after a reboot. Then I ran the commands (from a terminal as admin), most of them were not found, and after I ran them the network stopped working altogether, I tried rebooting and still nothing, so I reverted to the restore point, everything was going well but after windows booted to shell again, a popup error appeared on the screen regarding the restoration; the network were working again, so I left it like that.

I'm considering reinstalling the whole OS altogether because of the many errors/problems. I'm going to try the latest Linux kernels to see if they support that hardware properly. Last time the support was bad and I couldn't get some stuff working, I hope it's fixed now.

Thank you for the support GokAy.

 

[GokAy]

I am confused, they didn't work but somehow after a problem restore it is working now?!

For clean reinstall - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

 

[AlanQ]

They didn't work, then I restored the system to the restore point I've created before the changes, then the restore process popped an error but it reverted the networking to the previous (broken) state.

Is there a way to install a 64-bit version of Windows 7 (Home Premium) on that HDD in some way that keeps the user files intact? At the moment I'm using all my backup media so that would be handy, although in the long term I'll surely changing the OS of that machine to one that doesn't need so much maintenance.

Thank you.

 

[GokAy]

A repair install will keep user files and programs, but will lose Windows updates and device drivers.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

See if it fits you.

Try running in elevated cmd:

sfc /scannow

and if corruption that can't be fixed:

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >"%userprofile%\desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

attach the sfcdetails.txt here

 

[AlanQ]

It seems you can't upgrade to 64-bit with a repair install, but I guess it's worth a try nevertheless. Thank you.

 

[GokAy]

The System Specs show as 64bit, another system? Oh I see, 1st post 1st line

You can't go from 32bit to 64bit. You can repair to 32bit though. Or since it's new, you could just clean install as linked before.

 

[GokAy]

Hmm, can you check one final thing please

Open Device Manager - View - Show Hidden Devices
Then expand Network adapters - see if there are more than 1 Microsoft ISATAP adapters listed, and check WAN Miniport (PPPoE)