[beta2] LAN problem and what fixed it.

I may be the only one that had this problem, but here it is and what I did to fix it.

System: P4 1.5ghz, 768Meg RAM.
OS: Desktop - XP home sp2 w/all critical patches/updates, Notebook - XP home sp1 w/all critical patches/updates.
LAN: 10/100 Ethernet (wired) connected via a switch.

I uninstalled the first beta re-booted and then installed the current beta and re-booted. When PG came up I thought it a little strange that all of my customized settings were intact and PG was not in learning mode. But everything appeared to be working correctly so I dismissed it. It was not until yesterday, 11/14/2005, that I noticed I could not access either of the above computers through the LAN. In fact My Networked Places in XP was completely empty, even the shared files/folders on each computer were not appearing. I spent most of that day troubleshooting this but nothing worked. Today, 11/15/2005, I did a System Restore on the Desktop to a date several days prior to the install of the PG beta2. On the re-boot PG did not load, it was as if it had been deleted, and I was able to see the Desktop's shared file/folders/resources. Taking this as a clue, I uninstalled the PG beta2 on the Notebook and after the re-boot I had access to the Desktop again. I then searched the system32 folder for the PG dat files, they were still on the Desktop but not on the Notebook, and deleted them. Upon reinstalling PG beta2 on both systems I now have full LAN access to both computers shared files/folders/ resources.

I have no clue as to why the PG dat files were not deleted on the Desktop, since the uninstall ran with nothing unexpected happening.

 

The INSTALL (for 3.150) deletes the DAT files on install, which is where the problem most likely occurred. The uninstaller left the old files there, then you installed the new one which left the originals in place instead of deleting them as usual.

Running a few programs or just rebooting once in Learning Mode may have solved the problem, if it was the old DAT files which caused it. Not really expected behaviour though.. hopefully this isn't going to be a problem with upgrades from 3.150

The new version will have "do you want to keep settings" in the uninstaller.

 

Glavin, thanks for the info that is what I suspected. But just for the record this was an install from beta1 to beta2, with beta2 giving the problem. I did not think about going into learning mode, since it came up with all my apps and settings listed and in locked mode I left it that way. At least things are working smoothly again.

 

Well, this is becoming all to frequent only 4 days since the first incident, on Saturday Nov. 19 I found I had completely lost all access between computers on my LAN. I tried disabling PG and exiting on both computers but still no access. Here again the only thing that would allow me to access the shares on either computer was to completely uninstall this PG beta.