Can't get out, part 2

[griffinspc]

onedaddycat, I read the attached page and decided to print it before commenting, that's as a confusing bit of text as I've ever read on-line. Give me a while to re-read it.

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"Finest Kind"

[griffinspc]

Ok folks. It's fixed. It took forever and I really wish I could give all of you who offered help a definitive answer but here's the best I can do. At the suggestion of Ottomatic I downloaded and ran UOTrace http://www.blackcastlesoft.com/uotrace/download.asp (Neat little freeware). This allowed me to see that although connected and getting a normal speed and length report from Dial up Adapter I was not getting a real connection to my ISP, Worldnet or even internally.

I couldn't see anything but the host, not my other machine, even though I could share files, weird. Checking further I found I was receiving but not sending to the outside world. This I confirmed by tracking incoming Zone Alarm messages and the initial bytes sent/received.

I began by moving the NIC and modem and Video cards (again)(re-installing) with no effect. I then removed them completely, uninstalled all network references and booted clean a couple of times and then replaced and added all the latest drivers for all cards from MS and the manufacturers with no luck. I then replaced the modem with an external Zoom, no luck, then the NIC (a brand new Asound) with an older Intel 10/100 and reset all network references and re-installed all AT&T settings from AT&T using On-line FixIT which downloads and installs all stored settings from AT&T.

That did it. (I should say I completely removed Norton Anti-Virus and Zone Alarm and as yet they are still out. I'll re-install tonight but I don't think it was them. If anything goes haywire I'll post back.)

I'm using the same settings throughout, TCP/IP. etc.

I think it's 95% probable that it was the Asound NIC drivers more than anything else though the possibility that 2 problems actually contributed can't be ruled out.

Thanks again to all who answered and offered moral support. It's really frustrating to have something that should be so simple keeping you from using your machine for so long. Thankfully I had another machine to keep on the message boards during the struggle. Last as with anything like this I learned a lot more about my machine and therefore others. I could install a simple network now with my eyes closed and low on caffeine.

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"Finest Kind"