mn-700 problem with XP SP2

Here's a weird one. My desktop computer is connected via
ethernet to my mn-700. Everything was working fine until
I installed XP SP2 (WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) on
it. It worked fine until I reboot a few times under
SP2. All of a sudden, my network connectivity completely
ceased to exist. When I viewed my network connectivity
properties, I was getting getting "sent" activity but 0
for "receieved" activity. I changed absolutely no
settings either hardware or software to cause that. I
verified the Cat V cable was fine by connecting it to my
laptop (XP SP1), and connectivity was fine. So, I
installed a new NIC on my desktop computer and I was
still unable to detect my mn-700...no connectivity. At
this point, I uninstalled my two nic drivers through
device manager and reboot. Upon bootup, I received a
friendly message stating that I must reactivate my copy
of XP since my hardware configuration had drastically
changed...1 NIC added? At least I had 3 days to work on
the network problem before activation was forced, so I
uninstalled XP SP2, upon bootup it forced me to activate
XP...from 3 days to activate to forced activation, hmm.
So, I had to go through the phone activation, which was
successful. At any rate, I am still having the exact
same problem connecting to my mn-700. I've verified that
my firmware and broadband utility software are the most
up to date. I've tried all the troubleshootin steps
mentioned....
1. Cables connected properly and green lights on the mn-
700
2. Power-cycled both the mn-700 and the DSL modem.
3. Pressed the reset button on the back of the mn-700.

After all of these checks, still won't connect. I have
absolutely no firewall software installed, and even
disabled the Microsoft firewall for each NIC...still
cannot detect the mn-700. Absolutely no received
traffic.

Here comes the odd part, if I assign a static IP address
(along with the gateway, subnet mask, and DNS) in the
range that the mn-700 would typically assign, I start
getting receive traffic...still cannot connect to the
internet or find the mn-700, but there is some form of
communication there. If I connect my desktop directly to
my DSL modem, I get send and receive traffic, but the
external DHCP fails to assign an IP to my NIC. Again,
this is all while my laptop can successfully connect to
the internet through both the ms-700 and plugged directly
to the DSL modem.
At this point in the process, I've all but given up hope
and will be resorting to rebuilding my desktop computer.
I'll wait until XP SP2 is in widespread use before I
attempt to install it again. If anyone has any ideas,
I'm all for them. By the way, I don't have any MAC
lockdown on my mn-700.

Thank you,
Golden

golden wrote:
> Here's a weird one. My desktop computer is connected via
> ethernet to my mn-700. Everything was working fine until
> I installed XP SP2 (WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) on
> it. It worked fine until I reboot a few times under
> SP2. All of a sudden, my network connectivity completely
> ceased to exist. When I viewed my network connectivity
> properties, I was getting getting "sent" activity but 0
> for "receieved" activity. I changed absolutely no
> settings either hardware or software to cause that. I
> verified the Cat V cable was fine by connecting it to my
> laptop (XP SP1), and connectivity was fine. So, I
> installed a new NIC on my desktop computer and I was
> still unable to detect my mn-700...no connectivity. At
> this point, I uninstalled my two nic drivers through
> device manager and reboot. Upon bootup, I received a
> friendly message stating that I must reactivate my copy
> of XP since my hardware configuration had drastically
> changed...1 NIC added? At least I had 3 days to work on
> the network problem before activation was forced, so I
> uninstalled XP SP2, upon bootup it forced me to activate
> XP...from 3 days to activate to forced activation, hmm.
> So, I had to go through the phone activation, which was
> successful.

Don't know about the rest of the problem, but I do know
that for whatever reason, the nic cards on your system
carry the heaviest weight in the calculation of whether you
need to reactivate. Perhaps nics are regarded as the least
likely to fail or be changed.

Here is a site which will give you more info than you
want to know about how Windows determines if you need
to reactivate:

http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt

Here is Microsoft's site about product activation:

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_facts.mspx

Here is the info about the nic-under "How does product activation determine
tolerance":

http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt

Dick Kistler