# Solved: "Network did not assign a network address" no Default gateway, no DNS server,



## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Hello, I have read a few similar posts and the resolutions but it doesn't appear to be working for me. Any help is appreciated. I apologize if I am leaving out any important info. 

I'm running a Windows XP PC, wired to a Verizon FIOS modem/router, model MI424WR. I have a second computer connected via wire to this and a third computer connected wirelessly. As of 2 hours ago and for months, all 3 machines have worked fine.

My PC froze while playing a game and I reset it. This is not common but it has happened before without issue upon start up. However this time I received a limited/no connectivity message. When repair was attempted it didn't work because "the network did not assign a network address to the computer". The 2nd and 3rd PC work fine though.

Back on my first PC, when I view the details there is a physical address, IP address, and subnet mask, BUT there is no Default Gateway, DNS Server, or WINS Server.

I have tried the other suggestions I read about RESET TCP/IP stack and RESET WINSOCK entries then restarting my machine but neither of these worked.

Under device manager my NVIDEA nForce networking adapter says it is working properly and there isn't any red X or yellow indicators.

The only weird thing I saw which i have not seen discussed here is when I run IPCONFIG /ALL: It says IP Routing enabled: NO and WINS Proxy enabled: NO.

Thank you in advance for any help and please let me know if you need some additional information.

Thanks,

D


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## pedroguy (Jan 28, 2001)

Welcome to TSG:
Ac couple of things to look at :
To obtain dns and ip address automatically XP

Select Start > Settings > Network Connections.
&#8226;	Double-click the Connection icon of the connection you wish to modify to open the Local Area Connection Status window.
&#8226;	Click the Properties button to open the Local Area Connection Properties window.
&#8226;	Click to highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
&#8226;	Click the Properties button to open the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties window.
&#8226;	TCP/IP Properties window, IP Address tab
&#8226;	Select Obtain an IP address automatically.
&#8226;	Select Obtain DNS server address automatically.
&#8226;	Click OK to return to the Local Area Connection Properties window.
&#8226;	Click OK to return to the Network Connections window.

Make sure that all necessary services are started :



Check your Services are Started on all PCs: 
&#8226;	COM+ Event System (for WZC issues)
&#8226;	Computer Browser (computer browser will start when needed)
&#8226;	DHCP Client
&#8226;	DNS Client
&#8226;	Network Connections
&#8226;	Network Location Awareness
&#8226;	Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
&#8226;	Server
&#8226;	TCP/IP Netbios helper
&#8226;	Wireless Zero Configuration (XP wireless configurations)
&#8226;	WLAN AutoConfig (Vista wireless configurations)
&#8226;	Workstation

Note: You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic 
If a service is not running, open it's properties and check the dependencies. Check each of the dependencies and see which one is preventing the service from running. Checking the event log is also a good idea here, there may be clues to what is failing. 
__________________


Then let's see a complete ipconfig /all
Start, Run, CMD, OK to open a command prompt:
(For Vista or 7 type CMD in the Search box after Start)



In the command prompt window that opens, type the following command:

Note that there is a space before the /ALL, but there is NOT a space after the / in the following command.

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter to copy the contents to the clipboard.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.


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## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Hello and thank you for the help:

1. IP and DNS were already set to obtain automatically

2. Services:
a) All were listed as started except for "computer browser" When I clicked start it said it started then stopped because it had no work to do
b) The following were started but listed as manual so I changed them to auto: com+ event and Network connections.

3. IP config all:

C:\Documents and Settings\D2>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : David
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1F-C6-3B-1C-37
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.186.24
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Thank you again

D


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

> My PC froze ... and I reset it.


What do you mean by "froze" and by "reset it"?

Could be a defective cable or router LAN port. Mix and match with the other computer to test those.

Could be a corrupted non-Windows firewall or security suite. What one, if any, do you have?

May just need ...

(From a JohnWill post)

*TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2 or SP3.*

*Start, Run, CMD, OK* to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: *netsh winsock reset catalog*

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. *netsh int ip reset reset.log*

Reboot the machine.


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## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Hello and thank you for your response. To try and answer your questions in order:

1. As far as what I meant by "froze" and "reset" goes, I was playing a game and the screen froze and a the audio messed up and kept playing the same note from the soundtrack over and over. I couldn't alt-tab or ctrl-alt-dlt out of it so I manually hit the reset button. These occurrences are rare but they have happened before. This time (and this has happened one other time) after I hit reset, while rebooting, the computer said "disk boot failure" and stayed in the black screen. When this happened I just powered it off and back on and it booted fine. But of course then I had no internet.

2. I tried different cables and mixing/matching the various ports. End result was that the computer having issues still doesn't work and the other computers work fine.

3. I use Windows firewall and have AVG, free version. I've tried turning off the firewall but this did nothing.

4. I tried the both of the cmd's pasted below right away and rebooted but it didn't fix anything:
Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: *netsh winsock reset catalog*
Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. *netsh int ip reset reset.log*

Any other ideas or things to check? As always, help is greatly appreciated.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Thanks for the clear and complete answers.  Check out the small possibility of a cable or router LAN port problem.

If those are OK it's looking to me like a defective NIC or motherboard. You can try a PCI (assuming this is a desktop and you have a spare slot) or USB ethernet card.


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## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Thank you for your continued attention, and yes, I did check the cables/ports. So to be clear on your guess: It is a hardware issue and not a software or settings issue? Is this correct?

So one minute things are working fine, then the computer freezes, i reboot, and the hardware is broken? I'm not double-guessing...just trying to determine if this is fixable or if I need to buy new hardware. And yes, I do have open PCI slots.

Thanks,

D


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

No guarantees, but yes I think pedroguy and I have covered all the software possibilities. The only two additional steps I can think of is an XP Repair Install or a clean XP install. That freeze you experienced could have corrupted the registry in such a way that the ethernet is not working and we'd never find it.

But also those occurrences you've had could have involved some kind of electrical problems. Stray electricity can easily take out a network adapter or part of the motherboard. Your ethernet is integrated in the motherboard; if it is fixable it would cost probably more than the computer is worth. A PCI or USB adapter will only set you back $10 to $20, $30 at the most.

Of course, if you were having other annoying problems it may be time for a new Windows install??


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## pedroguy (Jan 28, 2001)

and the only other hardware thing that I can think of,is,Go into device manager and uninstall that network adapter and then re-boot the pc, See if that adapter will plug/play itself back to life..
If not,then I believe Terry is certainly correct.Pci or Usb adapter is most probably the wat that you can get internet presence again.


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## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Thanks Pedroguy and TerryNet. 

I had 2 adapters: One labeled 1394 Connection, and the other called LAN 2, which was the NVIDEA. I uninstalled the NVIDEA and rebooted but encountered the same problem. The only thing that changed was that now I have the 1394 connection and the other one is now called LAN 3, which is the NVIDEA.

So it almost seems like i uninstalled it and when I rebooted it got put back in as LAN 3, whereas it used to be called LAN 2??? There wasn't any "plug/play/ windows has detected new hardware anything...."

So unless this info gives either of you new insight then I suppose I will go get a PCI network card. One final question since I have always used my motherboard for this purpose: anything in particular I need to know about selecting one of these cards? I'm used to them being 10/100 cards but now I see there are 10/100/1000 Mbps cards. Do I want/need one of these 1000 cards? The 10/100 ones are down the street and i could walk in and grab one. It looks like I'd need to order one of the better ones. This computer is almost strictly for gaming. My other two are for work.

Thanks,

D


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## dcs5000 (Mar 2, 2011)

Bought new PCI Network adapter.......works fine. Thanks all!


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## pedroguy (Jan 28, 2001)

Glad we could help.Thanks for the feedback.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

> ... when I rebooted it got put back in as LAN 3, whereas it used to be called LAN 2???


That has been an annoying habit of Windows for a long time. Maybe there is a technical reason for it, but I think it's just to upset us. 

A gigabyte adapter would help you only if you are transferring files on your LAN and the other device(s) also have gigabyte. Unless, of course, your internet access is more that about 70 Mbps.


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