Originally Posted by OldNick

Router = Draytek 2910VG
OpSys = XP sp2 Home
network car = d-link GDWA-510 wireless
Normal F/W Comodo Pro

At bootup, everything is fine. This happens when I try to connect to the network when the PC is running.

When I attempt to connect to the network (router) I can connect OK, but then the connector icon just says "Acquiring network address".

Now here's the weird bit (I hope not _too_ weird). It will sit there and do this until I alter the XP firewall setting from Off to On, then, repeatably and instantly, it gets an address. Note: the XP FW was OFF and I turned it ON.

Then if I try again, it sits there until I again try changing the XP FW to OFF, from ON, then again I have instant access.

So I completely disabled XP FW, by using Services.msc, and all that happened is that I now cannot acquire a network address at all! Because there is no Windows Network to alter....

I have tried to also close down my own FW, and the router's. This does not work.

My networks are set up to be assigned an auto address by the router. The system is encrypted. But it has been for ever.

But this has started in the last couple of days. I am not aware of any changes I have made to the system that could have caused it.

The Comodo FW did show traffic being stopped, and the active process was svchost.exe. This could be bad, except that killing the FW makes no difference.

Anyone any ides?

Thanks

Nick