Network Connections

[Ueline]

Started installing WSUS again, seemed ok. After a reboot of a Windows 2003 server, the server was not connecting to the network. Also, the server took a long time to get past the "Preparing Network Settings" screen. It seemed to be at least 5 minutes to get past the Applying Network Settings screen on startup.

 

Once the server was started, if I look in the Network Connections folder, there were not network adapters. The Network Connections service was hung on Starting. Lots of errors in the event viewer, but they were all because the network components were not started.

 

I went through Microsoft KB 825826: "How to troubleshoot missing network connections icons in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP", but had no luck.

 

Any ideas anyone??

 

Thanks

Jacqui

[SYNACK]

If you try to restart the Network Connections service does it manage to start up and does it log any errors in the event log when you do this?

[Michael]

I agree with SYNACK, this would be my first move too. Failing this, I would take a look in Device Manager at your network adapters and whether Windows reports any problems here.

 

You could try deleting the network adapters from Device Manager and then rebooting. This forces Windows to re-detect and re-install drivers for your adapters.

[Ueline]

I agree with Synack too, I tried all those things to no avail.

I don't think there is anything of note in the Event Log apart from what you'd expect whe you have no network connections. I wondered if IIS had messed up settings in the Domain Controller Security Settings (I read that it can change the properties of Impersonate a client after authentication) and take out your network connections. Any ideas would be welcomed.

[Ueline]

I can't restart the netman service even from a command prompt, it times out and fails. Then it says 'starting' and the only way to end it is from the cmd line again. Also one of the COM service does the same. Although Plug and Play etc. have started just fine.

[Michael]

The only dependency is the Remote Procedure Call (RPC), but this doesn't help. I would check under the Log On tab that Local System Account and Allow service to interact with desktop are selected.

 

Could you try disabling your network adapter(s) in Device Manager (temporarily) and see whether the service starts then?

 

Have you tried repeating this procedure in Safe Mode? Last Good Configuration will be of no use, as you can logon with no problems (apart from it being slow of course).

[Ueline]

I will check that, thanks!!! I tried all the safe mode stuff and that doesn't work either.

[SYNACK]

Perhaps the computer recently upgraded the device drivers for the network adapters via Windows update. It might be an idea to use the roll back drivers option on the network adapters hardware properties page to check that newer drivers are not causing the issue.

[Michael]

If you go to Start > Run and type:

 

regsrv32 netman.dll

 

Does this register correctly? If not, search for netman.dll and see if it's listed under the System32 directory. If it isn't, I'd recommend you try replacing and registering the new file.

[Ueline]

I already tried this, along with registering two other dlls. they register fine and still don't bloody work.

Thanks

[Michael]

Have you tried scanning for spyware? Maybe something to eliminate if not already explored

 

The Network Connections components appear to be place, but clearly something else is happening creating the symptoms you're experiencing.

 

I always use the trusted Ad-Aware SE, but you must visit Lavasoft's website to manually download the latest identity file.

[Ueline]

This is fixed now. Most strange that somehow this server had an IP address from the network but had no network connections. So many of the services wouldn't start. It seems that this was caused by a windows update. Tried all the tweaks and fixes out there to no avail. What did work like a dream was repairing with the Windows Server 2003 CD although this did need the Dell USB Key F6 Driver Utility with the SAS Raid controller drivers.