Wow, a lot of options to choose from in this posting application!
I’ve read what are probably related problems in other posts but am quite new to this and am afraid that plowing ahead without caution may cause more problems than it fixes.
My setup - main PC with a modem and network card, second pc with network card.
main PC just upgraded to XP Home, second PC on Win 98SE
First of all, my goal is to connect to the Internet with main PC and share the connection with second PC in additon to sharing files on the Main PC, kind of like a file server.
Everything was working perfectly till I got tired of the message popping up telling my my system is in danger because of no anti-virus software. A quick look at the pros/cons of different apps lead me to pick avast.
Installed, ran a scan, found a couple of minor issues (not much of an Internet surfer) and was done. Went to second PC and … no connection.
Both machines claim that there is no problem with the networking hardware, connection light still working on both. Second PC starts up and has the com light blinking on the card but don’t see that happening on the main PC.
Did the standard “Oh Crap” and uninstalled avast. Didn’t fix the problem. I’m thinking that something changed in the network config or firewall config that is blocking the signal but I’m completely new to this and am not sure where to look. Other than avast everything is native windows. Tried re-configuring the network with no change. Can’t ping either machine.
Did you install avast! on Windows 98 and then upgraded to XP or, on contrary, upgraded to XP and then install avast?
If you disable WebShield provider, will avast! work? Will you connect?
Do you have any other firewall on Windows 98 computer?
Do you allow avast to connect into Windows XP firewall?
The system had been updated to XP prior to installing avast!. Note that all connections were working previously, and while I don’t believe it is avast! that is keeping the local network from talking, it is the only system change I made and uninstalling avast! didn’t make things start up again.
Disabling WebShield provider did not allow connection
No other firewall than XP default (again, firewalls are new to me)
After figuring out how to disable avast!/windows firewall (if I did it correctly) it made no difference.
Sorry but I’m new to networking as well, but on the network card there is one solid light (I assume connection) and one that I believe should blink when packets are sent - it never blinks, not even for some sort of handshake. Also I would expect that the Local Area Connection Status box would have some sort of activity - I see no packets sent, I also see no warnings or errors in the event logs. It’s as if their was a lobotomy between the system and the card.
I was hoping to have a definitive way to debug this as a configuration/network problem but lost patience and just yanked the card, shut down, restarted, shut down, inserted card, restarted, and it’s working as expected.
Turned on virus checking across the board, turned on the firewall across the board, everything works.
I’m afraid that there is something going on in that little PC computer brain that’s just messing with me as I’ve powered down several times. What’s different? Apparently some little flag someplace just needed to be reset - alert Mulder and Scully