Running
XP’s built-in troubleshooting tools is a good first step after completing the
preliminaries above. Open XP’s Network Connections folder and click Network
Troubleshooter.
The
Help and Support Center opens, showing a series of networking problems
and tasks.
Under
Fix a problem, click the entry that best describes your networking
problem, and XP will lead you through a troubleshooting procedure for that specific
problem. For example, here’s the first screen of the File and Printer Sharing
Troubleshooter.
Click the button that best describes your problem, put a check mark in the
I want the troubleshooter to investigate settings on this computer box,
click Next, and continue.
If you’re having problems connecting to web sites, news groups, or E-mail,
click Diagnose network configuration and run automated networking tests,
then click Scan your system. This option runs a series of tests and presents
the results.
Some
of the results are simply informative. For example, Computer System shows
the name that you assigned to the computer, and Operating System shows
whether you have XP Home Edition or XP Professional. For each test, the result
appears as FAILED or PASSED.
Click
the plus sign next to any result for more detailed information. Here, I’ve done
that for Default Outlook Express Mail to see why that test failed. The
detailed results show that the outbound mail server that I specified can’t be
found – its name starts with smtp, but I entered it incorrectly as stmp.
If you’re having problems with connectivity using the TCP/IP protocol, click
the entries under Pick a task and follow the steps that they give.
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