q1 what makes internet gateway disappear and reappear on a network i have a manually configured network and i noticed that some of the system loses internet gateway and after restart or reconfiguration of the system they reappear. what could be happenning? q2 I have a virus on my my network. w32.rontokbro@mm does this virus disallow network, file and folder sharing?.

This is actually an old virus first discoverd in October or 2005. It spreads through email. The symtoms of the virus are: Inability to access the security related websites listed above due to the modifications made to the HOSTS file Desktop firewall program alert that a foreign program is trying to access the internet Presence of the files/Registry keys mentioned above Inability to run Regedit.exe Inability to change the Windows folder options Most antivirus programs that are up to date will remove this virus. Can you clarify a little more on your statement "...some of the system loses internet gateway...". What desktop operating system are these systems running? How do you check for the gateway configuration when you believe it's been lost, IPCONFIG at a prompt, do you view Local Area Connection settings (if XP/2K)? What do the desktops do when you try to access a web site when the gateway is "lost"? Does the browser open an undesired web site? If so, that may be a result of the infection. The grass may not be greener on the other side . . . but it just might have less weeds. :-D

Thanks Puppet, i have 4 systems connected to a hub. one of the computers is connected to the net directly using a dialup connection and i enabled internet sharing. all other computers access the internet via the one that is connected directly tothe internet. i manually configured all the systems when i do not always get ip addreess from the DHCP server and this gives me lots of problem. recently i noticed that internet gateway icon that shows on my network connection on one of the computers dissappear and when i reconfigure it by assigning a new ip address it comes up and the computer can browse but in an event that i have to restart the computer, the internet gateway disappears and the computer cannot browse so the process goes on an on. what is causing it.

This is the problem. Only one of the systems, the one with the modem, should have the internet gateway icon. It is the only system you have to any configuring to for ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). The other three systems just use the one with the modem as the gateway, they need no additional configuration. There should be NO internet gateway icon on the 3 of the computers. The only computer that should have and has to have the internet gateway icon is the one with the modem (the internet access). The computer with the modem is the gateway for the rest of the computers to access the internet. The other three computers just use that one computer as their gateway. Leave the computer with the modem and one of the other computers connected to the hub. Disconnect the other two and don't change anything on the computer with the modem - it should be the only system with internet gateway icon. On the computer WITHOUT the modem. Remove anything that has to do with sharing of network resources, internet gateway, Internet connection sharing, etc. from Network Connections. When you are done with this one computer, the one without the modem, you should have in your network connections just a single Local Area Connection Icon (if XP). There should be no Internet Gateway icons or anything to do with sharing access on this computer. Right click on the Local Area connection icon and configure for DHCP. USe a command prompt if neccessary and run ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew. Or, right click on the local area connection and choose repair (xp). See if the connection drops anymore. If there is truely a problem with obtaining addresses through DHCP from the computer with the modem, then configure this client with static addressing. Otherwise use the DHCP services. When this test succeeds, then do the other two desktop systems. Remove everything that has to do with internet connection sharing and set for dhcp. The grass may not be greener on the other side . . . but it just might have less weeds. :-D