FrankJH said:
No firewall active on pc - and no upgrade that could have potentially turned it on ( we have hardware firewalls in server room, so dont require any "windows" ones - and this even interferes with some apps we use anyway.
Unfortunately there was no other port to use, so that wasnt really an option.
I couldnt ping the DC ( dont know what a gc is, and guessing the gw is gateway?)
We came to the conclusion that the mobo inbuilt netowrk adaptor was failing for some reason ( it was a pretty ancient compaq EN machine)
My boss came in late with a bootable piece of software called "EFN" or something similar - will update on Monday when I copy it lol - but it was an XP shell basically with a "Locksmith" program available
The Admin account name had been changed to someone's name ( who had left the company yearsss ago) and no one on the IT team had even met or knew about the username / password - so first thing I did was change name to something more suitable
Still want to work out why XP wont burn a proper copy of the Ultimate Boot CD ISO, it literally just burns the ISO itself ( ie in explorer you see one ISO file rather than all the files it should contain)
Thank you everyone for all your assistance - not really sure why I deserved the remarks that have been edited out but hey ho
Good luck with the system. I think the comments were mainly because you had (inadvertently) turned a fairly straightforward problem into a more complicated one due to being naive/ inexperienced when it comes to networking. It happens, and imo I think there should have been more support/knowledge from your more senior techs then you wouldnt have had to resort to pulling your hair out posting here
(p.s. if you're company has any openings higher up the scale let me know, it sounds like they could do with me!)
As it turns out it looks like the problem was a possible hardware fault (which would have also been shown up if you had given it a new IP address on the DHCP server or set it up statically incidentally).
I think part of the problem is that you are obviously fairly well-versed with the day-to-day running of a corporate network using the Microsoft tools and obviously understand concepts like domains, workgroups and permissions but have holes in your knowledge when it comes to whats happening "under the hood". Of course there are only two ways to gain this knowledge- experience (both good and bad) and by studying computer architecture from the bottom-up, which is an extremely dull, but important facet of academic computer science
I do think some of the comments were unwarranted and unjustified, and Im probably one of the most BoFH-ey people here and quite possibly one of the posters who suffers fools least gladly. Just try and take any criticism constructively on the chin, and learn the lessons for next time. Remember the front cover to the Hitchiker's Guide: Don't panic
