Monday, March 30, 2009

TCP/IP Stack Rebuild

TCP/IP Stack Rebuild is fairly easy to do on XP and Vista.

The easiest way to do it is to go to Local Network Connections.


For Vista
(Classic View for Vista)

Control Panel>Network Sharing Center>

Select: Manage Network Connections from left menu.

This brings you to the Network Connections

Right Click Local Area Connections select Properties

Uncheck both TCP/IP boxes for IPv4 and IPv6

Click OK.

Go back and check the TCP/IP boxes now.

You might as well do a NIC rebuild now too!

Click on big Configure button on top portion of box.

Select Driver Tab

Uninstall Driver

Click OK and reboot computer

Another better way to do a TCP/IP Stack Rebuild is as follows.

select “Run as Administrator” to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.txt

(to view results of reset, be more specific on location of reset.txt for easier location, netsh int ip reset c:\reset.txt that way you can view the file too)

Reboot machine.

For XP

Control Panel>Network Connections>

Right Click Local Area Connection Select Properties

Uncheck TCP/IP Click Ok

Right Click Local Area Connection again select Properties and

Check TCP/IP Click OK.

Do your Nic Rebuild now which is indentical in Vista and XP

Right Click Local Area Connection again

Click on CONFIGURE button, select Driver Tab> Unimstall

Click OK and reboot PC.

A better way to do the stack rebuild on XP is also from the Run Command

For XP, Start, Run, CMD to open command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.txt

(to view results of reset, be more specific on location of reset.txt for easier location, netsh int ip reset c:\reset.txt that way you can view the file too)

Reboot machine.

Please note, you must do a Nic Rebuild as described from local area connection and can not be done from command prompt.

This should solve connectivity problems associated with router. If this does not work your router may be bad. You can bypass router and connect PC directy to modem.

Media Disconnected Error

The Dreaded Media Disconnected error in IPCONFIG!

Usually a router issue. Common on XP and Vista.

Most common causes:

• Bad cable
• wrong cable
• bad connection
• bad router
• router turned off

If all the connections are secure, you can try a release/renew, but probably will not help. Some times in Vista a simple a router reset and PC will work! Bypassing the router will solve the problem but may not leave the customer very happy telling them it’s a router issue and they need to contact the router mfger for TS.

The only other thing we can do is the TCP/IP stack rebuild and NIC rebuild. If this fails we have no choice but to leave the customer hooked up directly to modem if possible and refer them to router manufacturer as other techniques are too time consuming such as a manual stack rebuild (not the quick way we do it), and also not practical for most customers as it may seem difficult. And does not always solve the problem any way.

FYI a manual stack rebuild for XP/Vista is identical. There is a MS download for XP only that will do it automatically. The link for it is…
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=aw;us;299357&eula=1
This is for your information only and I do not advise you try it unless you are super confident!

For XP, Start, Run, CMD to open command prompt.

For Vista, Start, Programs/Accessories and right click on Command Prompt, select “Run as Administrator” to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.txt

(to view results of reset, be more specific on location of reset.txt for easier location, netsh int ip reset c:\reset.txt that way you can view the file too)

Reboot machine.

As mentioned earlier this may not solve the problem but is good to know about.