Old Office Computers - Unable to use a connection

mrhenry1

Hi there, don't often get out into the main part of the site but maybe somebody better educated than me will be able to help me here;

I've obtained 5 old office computers, 4 are windows2000 and 1 is windowsXP. They are in good order, and I have cleared all the old software etc, but I have one major problem with them all. When I plug in the ethernet cable, it recognises a connection but it is unusable. I.e I attempt to open a web page, and get the 'Page Cannot Be Displayed' message.

I've made sure the LAN settings are told only to automatically accept a connection, no proxy etc. The Activity says packets are being sent but not received.

Any ideas what's going on here?

Thanks greatly to anyone who can help, cheers

m5rcc

Is an Antivirus installed blocking the ports?

mrhenry1

In Add/Remove programs something exists called Symantec AntiVirus Client, which when I attempt to remove it, causes a message to come up saying

'The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable'

However, I'm not sure this program is relevent as I'm told it hasn't been used since 25/05/2006 and the date is correct on the computer, suggesting it isn't curently blocking anything.

When I search files, I find evidence of 'Norton_AntiVirus_Corporate_Edition' in folder C:\WINNTsystem32\AMS_II

Which means nothing to me but I'm hesitant about deleting it?

mr_fishbulb

Are you plugging them into the same network as you are on now? I.e. the machine that you are connected to the internet to post this?

If so, on your working machine, open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all

Then on one of the office machines, do the same.

Compare the results. You are looking for things like Subnet Mask, Default gateway, DNS servers, DHCP server.

It could be they have some company specific settings.

m5rcc

On the XP computer, could you see that the "Local Ara connecion" is connected? If so, right click>properties>General>Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). What are the settings on here?

gaming_guy

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2002081213583048

mrhenry1

Cheers for the replies guys, gonna give them a quick go

mrhenry1

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Are you plugging them into the same network as you are on now? I.e. the machine that you are connected to the internet to post this?

If so, on your working machine, open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all

Then on one of the office machines, do the same.

Compare the results. You are looking for things like Subnet Mask, Default gateway, DNS servers, DHCP server.

It could be they have some company specific settings.

only the subnet masks are the same - the rest are different, with DHCP not even enabled on the office computer. The machine I am typing on is wireless, the office computer is connected by cable - though that's the only difference between the two conenctions.

I assume I should change the settings... somewhere?

mrhenry1

m5rcc wrote: »

On the XP computer, could you see that the "Local Ara connecion" is connected? If so, right click>properties>General>Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). What are the settings on here?

AHA. 'use following IP address' instead of obatain automatically.

Edit - changed it and it's working perfectly. Thank you thank you thank you to all of you, can't say how much I appreciate the help