Hello. Got a problem with a Windows XP home Swedish version. Not that it's relevant but still. I've seen this same problem countless times now and it has taken too long to find useful information about what the problem is and how to fix it. So I've just reinstalled windows. I'm getting tired of reinstalling windows for people and there has to be a way to fix the problem. The problem is. The network stops working magically. I boot it up, I try to remove the network card, reboot again. Let windows install the drivers again, and same problem. I've tried to use netsh winsock reset, netsh interface reset all. Removing filesharing and other junk, tried to put a pci network card in aswell. And still the problem persists. This particular person had F-Secure, I've disabled the startup of this program via msconfig to see if it causes any problems. I've disabled the windows firewall same problem. The network is configured to use DHCP. It cannot reach/get an ip off the dhcp server. So you end up with the default windows I can't get an ip from the dhcp server (169.254.41.214 / 255.255.0.0). I've checked the value of HKEY_Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/LSA/Restrictanonymous so it's set to 0 and yes it's set to 0. And why I did that is cause if I do netsh diag show test. The ping reply is error code 5, and it was suggest on this forum that someone should check. Now here's the funny part. The network adapter works just fine. I've booted Ubuntu Linux LiveCD and it works just fine. I've booted on a windows homemade livecd with network support and it works just fine. If I reinstall this persons computer the network will work just fine. But I don't want to reinstall windows every time it figures not to work and there's no useful information easily obtainable. Anyone have any amazing ideas?. I don't have time to search 3 million webpages about windows network problems. If you want netsh results or screenshots or whatever off commandline stuff, tell me and I'll provide.1 person needs an answerI do too

The number one reason for problems with Internet connectivity in Windows is malware infection. From your description of at least this one person's machine, I'd guess that is the reason on that box. It doesn't matter if the box in question had an antivirus installed, it can certainly still be infected with non-viral malware. So of course reinstalling Windows works for you because then you've removed the malware! And of course booting with live CD works because you're not running the infected Windows OS. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware Remember your basic troubleshooting steps: The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't? The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and versions) did you use to determine this? Be sure the computer is clean: http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_MalwareMS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!