Ok, I checked my IP and DNS settings and both are set to automatically obtain. I also ran IPCONFIG on both machines. Both had the exact same numbers with except for the IP address. The address was the same all the way up to the last digit which was a 4 instead of a 2. All the other numbers match under the subnet mask and default gateway. I double checked the programs I mentioned earlier and I’m still having the same problem. I’m thinking maybe I should just take it in to a shop somewhere. lol So far everyone is baffled by this problem. I appreciate you guys helping. One thing I did find strange is that when I changed the internet options back and forth to automatically detect settings. When I uncheck this box and try to run any of the programs I get and immediate cannot connect response. But when I go back and check the automatically detect settings box and try to reopen the program it begins to load, but then stops after 5 seconds and displays the cannot connect again.

Any other ideas?

"Bronzegod" wrote in message news:115787b9-7534-4a4b-8278-02b871c55c9d...

Ok, I checked my IP and DNS settings and both are set to automatically obtain. I also ran IPCONFIG on both machines. Both had the exact same numbers with except for the IP address. The address was the same all the way up to the last digit which was a 4 instead of a 2. All the other numbers match under the subnet mask and default gateway. I double checked the programs I mentioned earlier and I’m still having the same problem. I’m thinking maybe I should just take it in to a shop somewhere. lol So far everyone is baffled by this problem. I appreciate you guys helping. One thing I did find strange is that when I changed the internet options back and forth to automatically detect settings. When I uncheck this box and try to run any of the programs I get and immediate cannot connect response. But when I go back and check the automatically detect settings box and try to reopen the program it begins to load, but then stops after 5 seconds and displays the cannot connect again.

Any other ideas?

The IP address for each machine on any network has to be unique - it's how the network identifies which machine is which - so  I imagine your settings were something like 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.4 (depending on the router make and model - and who set the thing up) This is controlled by the router, and may vary depending on a number of factors, so don't worry about it. The fact that all other settings, particularly DNS settings, are the same, helps eliminate a few possibilities.

That behaviour is normal - with autodetect on, Windows attempts to find a server to tell it what settings to use, and only then fails out. with autodetect off, the fail is immediate if the onboard settings don't work for some reason.

Please check your Device Manager - the Network Adapters. Can you positively ID every piece of hardware listed there? i.e. if there's two Ethernet devices, do you have two Ethernet sockets? What is the description for the adapter you're using?

Please do a Search on your machine for files named HOSTS - the one we're really interested in is in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc but there may be other ones around if malware has taken hold at some point.

If you look at the files in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc - are all the same date and time? Open the file named HOSTS in Notepad (there should only be one - if more, then let us know) and see what it says - there should be a number of lines beginning with a hash (#) and then a single line which says "127.0.0.1       localhost" (without the quotes).

If there's any more there, quote the first two or three, and the last two or three, lines in your response, and let us know what other anti-malware programs you are running.

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Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC

When looking in the device manager I noticed that SCSI and RAID controllers had a yellow exclamation point next to it under Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid Controller. Is this important? I also looked under network controllers and see the one I’m using called Compact Wireless-G USB. I also had 1394 Net Adapter, Marvell Yukon, and Nvidia nforce controller. I pretty sure that all these are good. I did a search for host files and came up with two with folder C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc which were Imhosts 4k and hosts 1k. when I opened in note pad this is what I got

Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.

This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.

This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each

entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should

be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.

The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one

space.

Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual

lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.

For example:

#     102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com         # source server

#      38.25.63.10     x.acme.com             # x client host

"Bronzegod" wrote in message news:051fd759-0e20-473d-bb68-65ce964334f5...

When looking in the device manager I noticed that SCSI and RAID controllers had a yellow exclamation point next to it under Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid Controller. Is this important? I also looked under network controllers and see the one I’m using called Compact Wireless-G USB. I also had 1394 Net Adapter, Marvell Yukon, and Nvidia nforce controller. I pretty sure that all these are good. I did a search for host files and came up with two with folder C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc which were Imhosts 4k and hosts 1k. when I opened in note pad this is what I got

#     102.54.94.97    rhino.acme.com         # source server

#      38.25.63.10    x.acme.com             # x client host

There *should* be another line after that -

127.0.0.1   localhost

...and if you're running with IPv6 installed, also a line

::1          localhost

(how much difference it makes not having them, I'm not sure, since they should be hard-coded)

LMHOSTS.SAM should have nothing in it except lines beginning with hashes.

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Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC

That’s all it gives me are those two lines. The lmhost does kinda the same thing which just list what an lmhost file does or is.