Attn Brennan Crowe [MSFT]: Win98SE won't talk TCP/IP on network card

(you know what they say 'bout the squeeky wheel....)

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...ogle.com#link3

Ok. This is just a guess. Did you enable Internet Connection sharing? I
assume that this IS Windows 98 SE.

I know now the level of the breaking point. Those test show that the IP
stack is working and the network card itself is looking good. I would focus
on replacing the cable, changing the hub port the cable is plugged into,
checking for software installed such as Black Ice, Zone Alarm, or any other
personal firewall products installed on the system. If you had one of these
installed before, let us know. You may need to hack it out manually.

--
Thank you,

Brennan Crowe
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Brennan Crowe [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<#(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Ok. This is just a guess. Did you enable Internet Connection sharing? I
> assume that this IS Windows 98 SE.
>
> I know now the level of the breaking point. Those test show that the IP
> stack is working and the network card itself is looking good. I would focus
> on replacing the cable, changing the hub port the cable is plugged into,
> checking for software installed such as Black Ice, Zone Alarm, or any other
> personal firewall products installed on the system. If you had one of these
> installed before, let us know. You may need to hack it out manually.

I don't know the history of this system ... it's my fiancee's. It
has Norton AV2000, Quickbooks Pro, ACT2000, a minimum Office 2K, and
the usual utils. No firewall that I can detect (checking STARTUP
folder & MSCONFIG).
Just to triple check the hdw, I installed Yet A Different NIC on
the off chance I had 2 bad NICs in a row. This (like the last) is a
CompUSA branded RealTEK RTL8139D-based card. I installed this in a
different PCI slot and moved the (Trident 9440) video adapter. Moving
things around caused multiple video and network adapters to show up in
the Device Mgr, so I rebooted to SAFE mode, deleted video and network
adapters, and rebooted again. The system detected the vid and network
cards and re-installed the drivers. Still no play. I tried swapping
cables/hub ports (Linksys 5 port 10 Mbit hub) with my other W98SE box
(which talks on the network just fine. Still no go, and the working
Win98SE box still works. I'm pretty much convinced it ain't a
cablemodem / router / cable / hub / NIC issue. That leaves some
issues like BIOS (Tyan Trinity 100 A1 v 1.16 Award BIOS 2A5LET5C) and
TCPIP settings before the fun begins.
Just as a sanity check, here's what's installed under network
components:
Client for Microsoft Networks
Microsoft Family Logon (I added this)
RealTek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
TCP/IP

Tcp/ip is all DHCP.
Identification/workgroup is my internal workgroup
Access Control is share level.
Realtek NIC binding is to TCP/IP
The NIC has some "interesting" settings, but I'm assuming that
the defaults will still allow the thing to function.

I be stumped.

(E-Mail Removed) (pt) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> "Brennan Crowe [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<#(E-Mail Removed)>...
> > Ok. This is just a guess. Did you enable Internet Connection sharing? I
> > assume that this IS Windows 98 SE.

ICS is not installed on this PC.

I updated the Realtek driver to the latest Win98 version (6.06)
available on their website
(http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...Software=True).
Not that anyone cares, but when doing an "Update Driver" from the
System Props/Device Mgr/Network adapter, the system hangs after I
select the INF and tell it to go. Ain't that special?
I also update the PC's BIOS using the latest available at Tyan
(http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_s1590.html). Still no
workie-turkey.

p.t.,

At this point, I would recommend changing out the network card. It may have
gone bad. Then uninstall TCP/IP, reboot and re-install TCP/IP.

--
Thank you,

Brennan Crowe
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Brennan Crowe [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> p.t.,
>
> At this point, I would recommend changing out the network card. It may have
> gone bad. Then uninstall TCP/IP, reboot and re-install TCP/IP.

As mentioned in http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...&output=gplain
I've tried 3 different network cards, and I've un-installed TCPIP and
re-installed it.

When I went to (un)install Internet connection sharing, the system
informed (I'm running on memory here....) me that I couldn't install
ICS because I hadn't completed configuring my network, or something
like that. This was with the card installed and TCPIP installed. The
dev mgr says the card is working, but it's assigned the 169.* IP
address, which means it isn't, or at least isn't talking to the DHCP
service of my router.

All I really need is the secret code or incantation that will enable
Win98SE to use TCP/IP.

(E-Mail Removed) (pt) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> "Brennan Crowe [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> All I really need is the secret code or incantation that will enable
> Win98SE to use TCP/IP.

Based on suggestion(s) in http://www.careyholzman.com/netfixes.htm,
I downloaded and installed new VIA 4-in-1 drivers (Tyan mbd is VIA
MVP3 based) from http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/4in1/4in1435v.zip
Lo & behold, the bloody beast is finally working! Hot tunas & holy
cats!!!
Thanks to the folks who helped, and bartender, an extra root beer
for Mr. Holzman !