Unable to add the interface (...) to the Router Manager for the IP Protocol - error on Win XP computer

Well, yes and no. This shows up as an error, then subsequently over the next few hours it looks like I get different sets of errors or warnings, and then eventually the dumb thing crashes.

1. Unable to contact a DHCP server. The Automatic Private IP Address 169.254.93.86 will be assigned to dial-in clients. Clients may be unable to access resources on the network. (IP assigned not the same every time).

2. Your computer was not assigned an address from the network (by the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 000B6B1087B0. The following error occurred:

The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

3. Your computer was not assigned an address from the network (by the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 000B6B1087B0. The following error occurred:

The operation was canceled by the user. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

4. Adapter Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection: Adapter Link Down (I have actually disabled this since there is no physical ethernet link, all are on wifi, so not sure why this shows up).

5. The time service has not been able to synchronize the system time for 49152 seconds because none of the time providers has been able to provide a usable time stamp. The system clock is unsynchronized.

Also, and I do not know if this is cause or effect, it looks like when I insert my wireless USB adapter into the XP desktop, it identifies new hardware, finds the network, asks me to enter to WEP key and connects and works fine. Then the system hangs at some time, I reboot, and this time when I reboot with the wireless USB adapter still plugged in, the wireless link does not show up in Network Connections. So I uninstall the software, unplug the USB adapter, restart the computer, plug in the USB adapter and it installs again, until the next reboot cycle when I have to repeat the exercise.

Your question about routing and remote access - is there a way to find out if it is normal for this to run on an XP machine? Or did it get turned on because in System Properties, Advanced tab, I checked the box which says "Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent out from this computer"? Do you suggest I uncheck that and see what happens?

 

That's an odd one. I did find an article that listed parts of the message. Why is "Routing and Remote Access" running on an XP client? My only guess is that perhaps "Internet Connection Sharing" sets it up.

The service name is "Routing and Remote Access". You can see it if you run "services.msc". That service disabled on my Win2K laptop.

Do the timestamps on the messages in the event log track the times of the hangs?

Jim

I spoke to the Microsoft broadband guys from whom I bought the adapter, and they are shipping me a new one. However, this will be the third one that I get from them. Also, in between I had a no-name USB adapter that also failed the same way, so it is either a problem with my USB ports that is destroying the wifi adapters, or a software configuration issue, and unlikely to be consistent quality issues with network adapters. I spoke to Dell, and they ran diagnostics on my USB ports, had me uninstall and reinstall drivers for the USB and still no joy. So they feel not a hardware problem with the USB ports.

Is the 8300 close enough to the router that you could use the Ethernet connection instead?

Did XP create any "Network Bridges"? If so, delete them! Here's a tutorial on creating network bridges. You want to remove any you find. See the illustration below "NOTE THE NEW NETWORK BRIDGE ICON".

However, can you also please tell me how to use srvmgr to stop "Routing and Remote Access"? Don't think I have done anything like that before.

That can be done from "Start/Run services.msc". Find the entry for "Routing and Remote Access", and right click on it. Select "Properties". Under "Service Status", click on "Stop". Under "Startup Type", select "Disabled".

(edit) I mixed up "srvmgr" and "services.msc" in my prior post. No wonder you couldn't figure out how to do that!

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 03-28-2004 11:38 PM

Thanks for the quick and complete response, Jim.

1. "But it certainly isn't normal for a device to fail like that. If you reboot with the USB adapter unplugged, and plug it in after the system has rebooted, is it correctly recognized?"

Answer is yes. Appears to be fairly consistent. I have done it about four or five times so far. If I reboot with the USB wireless adapter attached, it is not recognized and I do not have a wifi connection. If I shut down, detach the device, reboot, and later attach the USB adapter, it recognizes the hardware and I get a wireless connection.

I spoke to the Microsoft broadband guys from whom I bought the adapter, and they are shipping me a new one. However, this will be the third one that I get from them. Also, in between I had a no-name USB adapter that also failed the same way, so it is either a problem with my USB ports that is destroying the wifi adapters, or a software configuration issue, and unlikely to be consistent quality issues with network adapters. I spoke to Dell, and they ran diagnostics on my USB ports, had me uninstall and reinstall drivers for the USB and still no joy. So they feel not a hardware problem with the USB ports.

2. "Your question about routing and remote access - is there a way to find out if it is normal for this to run on an XP machine? Or did it get turned on because in System Properties, Advanced tab, I checked the box which says "Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent out from this computer"? Do you suggest I uncheck that and see what happens?

Yes, do that. But that may not be enough. If that doesn't stop the errors you listed in (1), I'd also stop and disable the "Routing and Remote Access" service using srvmgr, then reboot, and see whether things get better."

Ok, I am going to disable the "Allow Remote Assistance invitations", reboot and see what happens. However, can you also please tell me how to use srvmgr to stop "Routing and Remote Access"? Don't think I have done anything like that before.

Again, much appreciated. I'll disable Routine and Remote Assistance invitation and watch and see what happens for 24 hours, and if it does not hang, then reboot with the device attached, and give you the cmd.exe ipconfig /all results.

 

 

I thought I had replied, but it does not show up, so doing it again.

1. Nope, the 8300 is not close enough to the router to allow a physical Ethernet connection. Sorry.

2. Nope, there are not network bridges showing up in the network connections.

3. I disabled Routing and Remote access using services.msc as advised. After that I rebooted. When I rebooted a) the USB wireless adapter was still plugged in, and this time both the power and wireless lights came on (progress since in the past when rebooting while connected only the power light used to come on) but it would not connect to the broadband router so I forced it to do so b) the event viewer is relatively clean although c) a new error has shown up which is "BlackICE service has unexpected shut down" which is my personal firewall from ISS. However, for the last 45 mts or so the 8300 XP appears stable.

BTW when disabling Routing and Remote access it offered me a tab where it said it needed Netbios to work in a stable manner, and since I do not think I have Netbios enabled on this machine, although it is on the other two Win98 machines that are also wirelessly on this network, I was tempted to enable Netbios on this XP machine and see what happens. However, I refrained from doing that and just disabled Routing and Remote Access.

4. I ran ipconfig and the output is as follows -

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office_Dell
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter {2227A95A-0010-4253-B0F8-12F5F1BFDABB}:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Sch
eduler Miniport
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-42-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 8:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : OEMWorkgroup
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Broadband Networking Wirel
ess USB Adapter #6
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-F2-74-9E-2C
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.19
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 29, 2004 9:36:37 PM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 29, 2004 11:36:37 PM

The entry "IP Routing Enabled - No" in the "Windows IP Configuration" kinda bothers me. Is that how it ought to be? I would have thought the answer would have been yes.

Thanks.

Avanindra

1. Nope, the 8300 is not close enough to the router to allow a physical Ethernet connection. Sorry.

That's too bad. I sorta mistrust USB network adapters. :-)

2. Nope, there are not network bridges showing up in the network connections.

That's what I was hoping. There shouldn't have been any.

3. I disabled Routing and Remote access using services.msc as advised. After that I rebooted. When I rebooted a) the USB wireless adapter was still plugged in, and this time both the power and wireless lights came on (progress since in the past when rebooting while connected only the power light used to come on) but it would not connect to the broadband router so I forced it to do so b) the event viewer is relatively clean although c) a new error has shown up which is "BlackICE service has unexpected shut down" which is my personal firewall from ISS. However, for the last 45 mts or so the 8300 XP appears stable.

Mostly good news, then. Let's see what happens over time. It should not have been necessary to force a connection to the router, since it's the default gateway, according to the "ipconfig" output. If everything continues to look better, let's try to figure that one out.

There are two possibilities on the BlackICE error. One is that we confused it by the configuration changes that were made. The other is that there's a recently reported vulnerability involving BlackICE. Take a look at this advisory and see if you need to update BlackICE.

BTW when disabling Routing and Remote access it offered me a tab where it said it needed Netbios to work in a stable manner, and since I do not think I have Netbios enabled on this machine, although it is on the other two Win98 machines that are also wirelessly on this network, I was tempted to enable Netbios on this XP machine and see what happens. However, I refrained from doing that and just disabled Routing and Remote Access.

NetBIOS over TCP is needed for file and printer sharing with the Win98 machines. Win2K and XP don't require NetBIOS over TCP, but earlier systems need it. You could yield to that temptation if you want to share resources with the Win98 machines. But it's better to make changes one at a time.

4. I ran ipconfig and the output is as follows - [...]

The output looks good. It appears you have a VPN client (Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter) installed. That's new information, and may or may not be contributing to the problem. Time will tell.

The entry "IP Routing Enabled - No" in the "Windows IP Configuration" kinda bothers me. Is that how it ought to be? I would have thought the answer would have been yes.

No, because all the routing should be done by the wireless router. It went away because we disabled RRAS. The fact that it was enabled could well have been one of the primary problems.

Jim

As promised, here is an update after 24 hours.

1. BlackICE - Yup, I am aware of the advisory, but have not upgraded yet. Will do so sometime later. I do not see this as a problem in resolving the current instability of my 8300 XP issue but more as an effect, unless you tell me otherwise.

2. The system has not crashed in the last 24 hours. That's the good news.

3. Yes, I do have a VPN client going. Sorry I did not mention it. It appears to work ok so forgot to mention it. In other words, as long as the USB adapter has a good internet connection the VPN client appears to function fine.

Now for the not so good news -

1. When I go to event viewer, it has a series of warnings in there, beginning this morning when I started using the machine. There are 7 in the first one hour when I was working on the machine, and then I went to office. After an hour I see another series of 8 in there, but it might well be because someone in my family was on the machine. Then event ID is 1003 and the warning is

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0050F2749E2C. The following error occurred:

The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

The same warning occurred 15 times during the course of the day, but has not yet resulted in the machine crashing. It is also the same one which I mentioned in a previous post which you thought relates to RRAS which I turned off.

2. In event viewer, when I go to "Applications", instead of listing meaningful entries, I see the windows icon for a file that is unidentified, and when I double click on any of the entries in there, it says "No event record is selected, or details for the selected record are ot available". I know it used to work before. Could this be related to turning RRS off in some manner?

3. In the Security tab of event viewer, it has given me a couple of "Audit Failures". The first one has EventID 680, Account Logon, User is NT_Authority\System, Computer is Office_Dell (the XP 8300 machine) and the description is

Logon attempt by: MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0

Logon account: Avanindra

Source Workstation: OFFICE_DELL

Error Code: 0xC000006A

Right after there, there is another Audit Failure, EventID 529, same user NT_Authority\System, description is

Logon Failure:

Reason: Unknown user name or bad password

User Name: Avanindra

Domain: OFFICE_DELL

Logon Type: 2

Logon Process: Advapi

Authentication Package: Negotiate

Workstation Name: OFFICE_DELL

Right after that, there is a successful 680 and a successful 529. Do you know what this could be, and what the "Logon Process - advapi" is?

4. Also, and my bad again, I think I misunderstood your instructions to reboot and paste the ipconfig result. What I did was I rebooted with the USB wifi er connected, it did not give me a wireless connection, so I physically disconnected and reconnected the USB adapter, forced it to look for the wireless network and logged on, and then did the ipconfig. So everything looked fine at this stage and I reported that to you last night.

I just did the ipconfig again, with the machine having run for 24 hours, and here are the results -

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office_Dell
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter {2227A95A-0010-4253-B0F8-12F5F1BFDABB}:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Sch
eduler Miniport
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-42-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 8:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : OEMWorkgroup
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Broadband Networking Wirel
ess USB Adapter #6
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-F2-74-9E-2C
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.19
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 8:21:51 PM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 10:21:51 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>

I do not understand the "Node type - unknown" under Windows IP configuration, but it still looks ok to you, right?

5. I am going to post this reply, and then reboot the computer, with the USB wifi adapter plugged in, and then do an ipconfig again and post it as a separate reply. Unless I luck out completely, I expect the USB connector not to find the wireless network, and I will need to physically disconnect, reconnect it, find the network, and then get a normal ipconfig result.

So please wait one, and again, all the help is much appreciated.

Avanindra

 

1. When I go to event viewer, it has a series of warnings in there, beginning this morning when I started using the machine. There are 7 in the first one hour when I was working on the machine, and then I went to office. After an hour I see another series of 8 in there, but it might well be because someone in my family was on the machine. Then event ID is 1003 and the warning is

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0050F2749E2C. The following error occurred:

The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

The same warning occurred 15 times during the course of the day, but has not yet resulted in the machine crashing. It is also the same one which I mentioned in a previous post which you thought relates to RRAS which I turned off.

Note that the "network address" we'd seen previously with that error was "000B6B1087B0". I finally found that one. It's listed as belonging to a company in Taiwan called "Wistron Neweb Corp.". But we're seeing a different vendor code now.

The vendor code for this one (0050F2749E2C) is listed as Microsoft. Looking at the "ipconfig" output you posted, that matches the wireless adapter:

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Broadband Networking Wireless USB Adapter #6
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-F2-74-9E-2C

So what kind of problem is the DHCP client having with renewal of the DHCP lease for the wireless adapter (rhetorical question for the moment)? The one hour interval is significant, because it's half the allocated lease time (two hours, from the "ipconfig" output). After half the lease period, the DHCP client attempts to renew its lease - and it's having some transient problem doing so.

Hmmm...Is power management enabled for the wireless adapter? Perhaps the adapter's being turned off because it's idle, and when the DHCP client attempts to use it, the adapter isn't powered up, so the initial DHCP lease renewal request fails, and then succeeds after the wireless card has reassociated with the router.

2. In event viewer, when I go to "Applications", instead of listing meaningful entries, I see the windows icon for a file that is unidentified, and when I double click on any of the entries in there, it says "No event record is selected, or details for the selected record are ot available". I know it used to work before. Could this be related to turning RRS off in some manner?

I've never seen that error! Try clearing the application event log. It may be that something's corrupted. I don't see how it could be related to turning RRAS off.

3. In the Security tab of event viewer, it has given me a couple of "Audit Failures". The first one has EventID 680, Account Logon, User is NT_Authority\System, Computer is Office_Dell (the XP 8300 machine) and the description is

Logon attempt by: MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0
Logon account: Avanindra
Source Workstation: OFFICE_DELL
Error Code: 0xC000006A

Right after there, there is another Audit Failure, EventID 529, same user NT_Authority\System, description is

Logon Failure:
Reason: Unknown user name or bad password
User Name: Avanindra
Domain: OFFICE_DELL
Logon Type: 2
Logon Process: Advapi
Authentication Package: Negotiate
Workstation Name: OFFICE_DELL

Right after that, there is a successful 680 and a successful 529. Do you know what this could be, and what the "Logon Process - advapi" is?

All that's benign. Error 0xC000006A is "User logon with Misspelled or bad Password". Once you typed the correct password, you got logged in correctly. "Advapi" is the process that completes the login by switching to your user account.

(edit #2) Since you have "success" as well as "failure" security auditing turned on, you're seeing more information than you would if only failure auditing were enabled. Here's a short article explaining those messages. You might (or might not!) want to turn off "success" auditing.

I just did the ipconfig again, with the machine having run for 24 hours, and here are the results -

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office_Dell
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter {2227A95A-0010-4253-B0F8-12F5F1BFDABB}:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-42-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 8:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : OEMWorkgroup
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Broadband Networking Wireless USB Adapter #6
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-F2-74-9E-2C
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.19
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 8:21:51 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 10:21:51 PM

I do not understand the "Node type - unknown" under Windows IP configuration, but it still looks ok to you, right?

I think the "Node Type" is unknown merely because NetBIOS over TCP isn't currently enabled. Otherwise things look normal...except for the problem the wireless adapter is having renewing its DHCP lease.

5. I am going to post this reply, and then reboot the computer, with the USB wifi adapter plugged in, and then do an ipconfig again and post it as a separate reply. Unless I luck out completely, I expect the USB connector not to find the wireless network, and I will need to physically disconnect, reconnect it, find the network, and then get a normal ipconfig result.

So please wait one, and again, all the help is much appreciated.

I'm on the edge of my chair! :-)

The most serious remaining problems are that the wireless adapter is having problems renewing its IP address, and the fact that it doesn't start correctly, and has to be coerced. The renewal problem may be related to power management settings. As of now, I don't have any useful theories about the startup problem.

(edit) I'd meant to comment on the BlackICE problem. If you didn't have a router between you and the Internet, that problem could be deadly. But the router shouldn't be letting the kind of traffic associated with the "witty" worm through to your PC. One of the worst potential problems with personal firewalls that do "stateful inspection" like BlackICE does is the potential for coding errors. But the router simply won't expose BlackICE to the traffic. If your PC were directly connected to the Internet, the "witty" worm could render the machine unbootable.

So I agree with your analysis that the BlackICE vulnerability isn't contributing to the instability. And the progress we've made supports that. My own firewall data also shows that the "witty" worm isn't propagating as rapidly as it was. I've seen one incident today. On March 20 through March 22, there were many more.

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 03-30-2004 10:22 PM

Message Edited by jimw on 03-30-2004 10:32 PM

I am having a difficult time posting the continuation. Would like to drop the other shoe, but I keep getting html errors when I try to post. Sorry, will keep trying.

Avanindra

 

Here is what I was trying to post, with html errors.

CONTINUATION OF PREVIOUS POST I rebooted my XP 8300 with the USB wifi adapter connected, both power and wireless lights were on. When it came back up, both lights were still on but the network icon did not show on the taskbar. I did the ipconfig and it showed only the Windows IP config and the Nortel VPN adapter, the wifi USB adapter was missing. I then physically unplugged and replugged the wifi USB adapter into the same USB port, the wireless light blinked, it listed my wifi network, I clicked on connect and I am back and running.

 The two ipconfig outputs are listed. FIRST IPCONFIG WITH THE USB ADAPTER PLUGGED IN AND RIGHT AFTER REBOOT FIRST IPCONFIG WITH THE USB ADAPTER PLUGGED IN AND RIGHT AFTER REBOOT

(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office_Dell
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter {2227A95A-0010-4253-B0F8-12F5F1BFDABB}:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Sch
eduler Miniport
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-42-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

SECOND IPCONFIG AFTER DISCONNECTING THE USB WIFI ADAPTER, PLUGGING IT INTO THE SAME USB PORT, FINDING THAT IT LISTS AVAILABLE NETWORKS, AND FORCING IT TO CONNECT TO THE WIFI NETWORK.

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office_Dell
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter {2227A95A-0010-4253-B0F8-12F5F1BFDABB}:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Sch
eduler Miniport
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-42-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 8:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : OEMWorkgroup
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Broadband Networking Wirel
ess USB Adapter #6
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-F2-74-9E-2C
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.19
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 8:48:31 PM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 30, 2004 10:48:31 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Avanindra>

I suppose the USB adapter could be faulty or has been made faulty by the incorrect network settings that killed the firmware on the USB adapter and the two previous ones (???)  but I find that hard to believe. Still, I am waiting for Microsoft to send me a (third) replacement. Thoughts on what I could do in the meantime? If I could get the system to recognize the wifi adapter on startup, that would be nice.

Thanks.

Avanindra

Where do I go check on power management for the wireless adapter? Interesting thought, especially if it also addresses the issue of not being recognized on initial bootup of the XP8300.

I found this concise explanation at Brown University's help page for setting up Dell machines on their network (*):

You may find that you have trouble connecting to wireless networks from your Dell laptop. This may be because of the default Power Management settings on the card. To remedy this problem, follow the steps below.

1. Open your Control Panel, select Performance and Maintenance, then select System.
2. Click the Hardware tab in the System Properties window, then click the Device Manager button.
3. Double-click Network Adapters in the Device Manager window, then double-click the name of the wireless ethernet card.
4. Click the Advanced tab in the properties window.
5. Select "Power Management" in the Property field on the left.
6. On the right, remove the check from the box labeled "Use default value." Then move the slider beneath that checkbox so that it indicates "Highest."
7. Click OK to close the properties window and close the other windows you have opened.

I wouldn't expect that to affect initial bootup, though.

Where do I go to clear the application event log?

In the Event Viewer, right click on the "Application Log", and select "Clear all Events".

And I do it accurately, but for some reason, maybe the first time it records a failure before it pulls up the window as soon as I click on the user account icon, and it fails the login because it realizes it needs to ask for a password.

Agreed though, should be benign. Also agreed, I should turn off the logging for successful audit.

So XP's set up to log on to your account automatically? Maybe the password you set up for automatic login isn't correct, causing the failure followed by the challenge? If so, you should be able to correct the password using "control userpasswords2", and respecifying the password.

Bottom line after all this - I am prepared to check the power management settings on the USB adapter. If that fails, since it looks like the system at least is not crashing any more, I am prepared to work this way for the next couple of days, forcing the USB adapter to log on to the wifi network manually, until I get the pristine USB adapter replacement from Microsoft, then try this again.

I wonder if there are startup interferences with BlackICE or the VPN client that are producing that symptom. Like you, I can't believe there have been that many defective USB adapters! You might want to disable BlackICE automatic startup and see if that changes the symptom. If it doesn't, you may want to try uninstalling the VPN client. There have been other incidents involving VPN clients interfering with network operation in wierdly unexpected ways.

(edit) I'm reviewing BIOS updates for the Dimension 8300, since the BIOS is involved in USB support. The current one is A05, released 3/1/2004. There's nothing in the release notes about USB support changes. What BIOS version is your 8300 running?

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 03-31-2004 10:02 PM

You're not attempting to paste from Microsoft Word, are you? The Dell Forum HTML checker rejects most things Word's HTML generator produces!

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 03-30-2004 11:00 PM

1. Hmmm...Is power management enabled for the wireless adapter? Perhaps the adapter's being turned off because it's idle, and when the DHCP client attempts to use it, the adapter isn't powered up, so the initial DHCP lease renewal request fails, and then succeeds after the wireless card has reassociated with the router.

Where do I go check on power management for the wireless adapter? Interesting thought, especially if it also addresses the issue of not being recognized on initial bootup of the XP8300.

2. I've never seen that error! Try clearing the application event log. It may be that something's corrupted. I don't see how it could be related to turning RRAS off.

Where do I go to clear the application event log?

3. All that's benign. Error 0xC000006A is "User logon with Misspelled or bad Password". Once you typed the correct password, you got logged in correctly. "Advapi" is the process that completes the login by switching to your user account.

Aha, but here's the thing. I was NOT doing a login myself, and goofing, and correcting myself. There is some process - or machine - in the background that was trying to log in and not succeeding. I have password enabled for the XP account Avanindra, so when I click on the user account icon after booting up, it shows a window for the password where I type and hit go. And I do it accurately, but for some reason, maybe the first time it records a failure before it pulls up the window as soon as I click on the user account icon, and it fails the login because it realizes it needs to ask for a password.

Agreed though, should be benign. Also agreed, I should turn off the logging for successful audit.

Bottom line after all this - I am prepared to check the power management settings on the USB adapter. If that fails, since it looks like the system at least is not crashing any more, I am prepared to work this way for the next couple of days, forcing the USB adapter to log on to the wifi network manually, until I get the pristine USB adapter replacement from Microsoft, then try this again.

Avanindra

Yup, you're right, I was pasting from Word. Thanks for the tip. Will redo. Wait one.