AOL 8.0/Windows XP/Dial-up Networking

[KevyD]

Hey, all...

I'm helping someone fix their AOL 8.0 in Windows XP, hours of wasted time. Problem is dials up, but neither AOL browser nor IE 6 can find any web pages. Furthermore, cannot ping IP's or URLs (DNS won't even resolve them), anti-virus can't find server for updates. AOL services work fine. May or may not be related...56K modem dial-in only works on the 3rd attempt, even if it is the same number as previous tries.

After going through all their standard troubleshooting options, the short-order cook at AOL Tech Support told me I needed to remove/reinstall Dial-up Networking files in Windows XP because they were corrupted.

Well, I know how to do that in all previous versions of Windows, but I cannot find ANY documentation anywhere on how to do this in XP. Which leads me to wonder if this is even an operation that can be done.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Kevin

 

[manarth]

can't be done in Windows XP - sounds like you need a TCP/IP stack fix.....

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299357

OR

http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/WinsockXPFix.exe

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[KevyD]

Thanks for the tips. Both those fixes sounded promising! Ah, but unfortunately, they did not work I think the computer may be infected. But I don't totally understand why a virus would want to cut off internet access.

Anyway, after the above fixes, AOL still signed on, but now it would bomb out occasionally saying that it had encountered errors and needed to be closed.

So I did an unattended reinstall of Windows XP, hoping that would rewrite over any corrupted files. (WINNT32 /unattend)
No good. Same situation as before.

I will be going back over there probably tomorrow to reformat and do a clean install on that machine. There's not much software on it anyway. Shoulda done that in the first place, but I did want the peace of mind of isolating the problem.

Kevin

 

[DaveRS575]

KevyD,

I have been having a similar problem on one of my clients PC's. I've been told that re-applying SP1 resolves the issue. Did you end up rebuilding this machine from scratch, or did you finally find a solution after the many hours of wasted time?

Thanks!

Dave

 

[KevyD]

Hi, Dave

No, I wasn't ever able to find a solution for that problem except for a clean install of Windows XP and all the software. It's worked fine since then. No idea what happened to screw up the AOL software in the first place.

Too many headaches fixing people's computers. I've since retired from that activity and focused on software development. A much more rewarding pursuit!

Bests,
Kevin