"Tommy Holmes, Jr." wrote:

> Well, we did remove the NIC from the Network Configuration dialogue box and
> that appeared to remove all the protocols as well.  Confirmed in
> Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager that adapter was no longer
> reflected as an installed device.  Cold-booted the computer and when it
> recognized the installed NIC, it searched for the driver files.  It located
> and installed the supporting files and in the process appears to have
> re-installed Win98SE TCP/IP protocol.  In the process, it repeatedly
> remarked that the files to be installed were older than the existing files
> and inquired if we wanted to retain the newer.  We answered "No" and
> perceived that the older files then overwrote the existing installation.
> Isn't that how one "reinstalls" the TCP/IP stack?

In theory yes but you only overwrote the drivers, not the TCP/IP stack which is
part of Windows, as I understand it. If the pertinent files are corrupted, and
system file checker will not neccessarily see them as such, then it will still
not work.

> Historically, when all possible explanations of a network failure are
> exhausted, we just replaced the NIC and it seems often to be the solution to
> an inexplicable situation.  What of that?

I thought you had done that already. If not yes by all means replace the card,
with a different brand if possible and see what happens. Another thing you may
want to try is to remove the card and without a NIC install DUN which will
install TCP/IP along with it. Maybe that will shuffle things around and do the
trick.

I've come across this before and have gotten lucky with the suggestions I've
given you. Also I've not been so lucky and even a reinstall from the CAB files
failed to solve the problem. At that point only a format and clean install did
the trick.

HTH,

Jose

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