Network problem, Cannot remove an internet gateway connection. .

Hello,

A friend of mine is having problems trying to connect to his network via his laptop. His desktop and laptop both run Xp home, and his desktop is connected to a router via ethernet. The laptop connects to the router via a wireless connection.

It all worked fine until he went to the UK on business. Now for some reason he cannot conenct to the network from his laptop. The laptop can ping the desktop, but not the other way around. Also his wireless connection works fine and he has internet access.

In his network settings there is an icon for an internet gateway connection which is connected. He said that he had someone connect his laptop up to a network of sorts while he was OS and thats when he first noticed the icon.

However when I try to disconnect it I get an eror message that is not possible to disconnnect at this time while the connection is trying to connect or disconnect. Im sure removing this internet gateway is the key but I just cant seem to disconnect it and the delete option is greyed out.
There is also another conenction icon which refers to a vpn setup that I am also trying to remove but cannot.

So anyone know what I can do to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance.

If you can see something 'new' in task manager startups then select it and click 'end process' and try a delete then.

You can also go into Control Panel Administrative Tools and then Services and if there is something there that is obvious set it to manual start, then reboot and try to delete the stuff.

Add/remove programs may work if you can stop the process from running AND of course it even shows up there.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;821980
The above article explains how to remove the Internet Gateway using add remove windows components.
Normally you should be able to RIGHT click and delete. If this si not working and the laptop has a switch to shut off the wireless card, shut the card off then remove the Internet Gateway the normal way (Right Click Delete) then after it is removed turn the card back on again.

I tried the task manager but cannot see anything that might relate to the gateway.

I will give your idea a try Futuretech, thanks for the advice. Do you think the internet gateway is what is stopping the network from working properly?

I think the first thing I would check for would be any proxy server software (such as Sygate, WinProxy, etc.) that might have been installed on the machine. You should be able to kill these through "add and remove programs" in the control panel. In Network Connections delete any bridged connections.

The Internet Gateway should not cause the issues, but its an extra not needed connection and when troubleshooting i like to get rid of anything extra to eliminate them from the equation.
Is there a software firewall running?
If they restart in safe mode with networking can they connect?