Hello!

I need a hand and am not having a very good day due to this situation. I saw that there was an update to my BOINC client and opted to download it. I chose the option to download the installer that included Virtual Box. The problem is that as it was merrily installing Virtual Box, it got past the installation of various drives and then promptly failed the installation and proceeded on with the BOINC installation itself.

The problem is that I now have no network connection on that computer what so ever, the other 8 machines I run are working and connecting just fine, so it's not likely to be a problem with the network or ISP.

I can run ipconfig and it will show me the IP address. I've reboot the machine as well as a complete power down. Every time it comes up, it shows a network connection but no internet access. If I try to repair the connection, it says "Windows is unable to discover the network proxy" which is very annoying considering that I do not use a proxy server. I have checked IE (the only place I personally know to find any proxy settings) and it's still blank, no check-marks at all. I then tried a repair from the adapter itself and it says that it was not able to obtain an IP address.

Now the IP setup is using the Windows default placeholder IP (169.X.X.X) and when I try to run ipconfig /renew I get the following error:

" an internal error occurred: file not found"

I have removed Virtual Box from my computer and that did not help. It appears that whatever the Virtual Box VMware does to prep the system will corrupt the winsock of the machine if things don't install as planned.

The problem I have is that I've yet to find a fix for the issue so I am reaching out to you, those with extensive experience with the software to see if anyone might know how to resolve the issue. I really don't want to have to re-install Windows to fix this issue!

Any assistance you could offer would be most appreciated. I am really hoping that I am just overlooking a simple fix, or even a convoluted one for that matter! I am an experienced Windows tech and the machine is one I built myself, I am just hoping that I am overlooking something or possibly over-thinking the issue. I am more than happy to look extremely stupid, so long as I get the machine up and running again.


Windows 7 Professional 64
Intel I7 Processor
16GB DDR3
1TB Storage on RAID 1
Nvidia Geforce 680 GTX x2 running SLI
Liquid Cooling

It's my baby, I just need it feeling better again.

Thank you in advance!

Can't promise a solution but this is a starting point.
As it complained about a proxy, go to Control Panel>Internet Options>Connections click LAN settings. Automatically detect settings should be checked, and the rest blank.

Also Control Panel>Network and Sharing Center, click change adapter settings. Highlight the connection. Try diagnose this connection.

Go to Control Panel>Device Manager>Network Adaptors
What devices are shown?
What are their properties? Any say they aren't working?

Good luck

---

I have had similar network problems on Win XP in the past, although they were not associated with VirtualBox. You symptoms look a lot like what I experienced:

Windows doesn't report any problems with the network adapter, but it won't access the internet, the local network, or even the router and the IP starts with 169.

The only way I could fix it was to go to Device Manager, uninstall the network adapter, then check for new hardware. Windows would see the adapter, set it up again and everything worked correctly afterwards.

There are two (separate) Windows commands which have helped me in situations like this.

netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset

Enter either one at a command prompt with administrative rights (no special procedure for Win XP: requires 'elevated privileges' or 'run as administrator' on Vista and later). They also require the machine to be re-booted after use.

IP addresses starting 169 are Windows' free-floating autoconfiguration addresses: they imply the TCP/IP stack has failed to acquire an IP address from the DHCP server responsible for the network segment - usually your router on a home network, or a server on a business network. Do check the obvious (network cable unplugged) before starting on any time-consuming tests.