help me, obi-wan kenobi and why the fuck aren't you taking my calls? -- router problems part deux

[rm]

Thank you for all those kind suggestions, unfortunately, they didn't work.

Here's more of the nitty gritty details.

My computer, running Windows 2000 professional, is connected to th router with a wire. This is successful, and I have internet access.

Megan's computer, running Windows XP, is:
- connected to the router (when i log into the router I see her)
- can see the good signal strength from the network
- currently sporting the proper IP.

Only problem is, she still can't get to any websites. She's dicked around with the firewall stuff, and doesn't think that is the problem, but stumbled on something just now, that when she tried to change it said she didn't have Administrator priviledges. The thing is, there is only one account on her computerm "Megan" -- no Administrator. She is the Administrator. is there some secret account she needs to get into? How? I don't know XP for shit.

Thnx.

Comments

DHCP

[adriang.livejournal.com]

I wish I had more help to offer than I do. The suggestions above sound good, to me. If this were Linux, I could be much more help, but I avoid Microsoft software like the plague.

I can offer this, though. The fact that she's got a proper IP address means that a lot is working. In fact, if I understand correctly, the default network configuration for windows is to acquire an IP address and other configuration data through DHCP. You might note that DHCP, on the client side, functions before IP is really configured, so it can't generally operate through the normal IP layers in the operating system. Typically DHCP clients open a raw socket and construct and decode the relevant packets themselves, rather than count on the OS to do it like a more typical application would. What this means is that DHCP clients often effectively bypass any builtin firewall type software, because the firewall software hooks into the very operating system IP handling that DHCP clients bypass.

This means that, even if her firewall configuration is completely wrong, her system might well successfully acquire its IP address, default router, and perhaps its DNS server address through DHCP, even if her firewall software prevents any other network communication from happening.

Knowing what I do about IP and DHCP, in general, even if I don't know a lot about Windows in particular, I would guess it might well be a firewall issue, and that you might have to log in as an administrator to fix it.

With any luck, though, you'll continue to get advice from people who know much more about Windows than I do, and they'll help you figure this out.

Adrian