Internet sharing suddenly not working-Help!

[Flightace0]

Evenin'
Having a big problem with a home network at the moment with 2 comptuers. Heres the situation, both computers are running Windows XP pro version. The host computer is connected to a broadband connection (optus@home Australia)
Me and my mate are having exactly the same problem where the networked computer cannot access the internet through the host.
We both have internet sharing etc. all turned on and it used to work on both our machines until one day, for no reason it just stopped and we've tried every method under the sun to get it working again but to no avail.

Another thing I should mention is that the "Ipconfig" device under WinXP used to work (at the same time the network used to work I might add) but now it doesn't, (gives a message something along the lines of "ipconfig" is not recognized as an internal or external command etc.....) and this is also happening on my mates computer. What could possibly be the story here?

Has anyone experience the same problem, or know what the possible cause is?

Any help will be much appreciated,
Regards,
Andrew

[userserver]

you have been exposed to a trojan (or virus) that modified applications. antivirus may have quarantined files.

[BipolarBill]

Boot from the WinXP CD and select Install and then Repair.

That should do it.

[Flightace0]

ah ok! i'll give that go...

Something Interesting which i found out

I have two network cards in the host computer (both same brand -SMC 10/100) and when I put my cable into the other card, the internet doesn't work, i put it back into the first one and it works so there's something wrong with that card.
So what i did was transfer one of the SMC cards to the client computer, and take the clients network card into mine and guess what-it worked!!
Now for the annoying bit, when i restart, the internet sharing thing (hand under network icon) disappers and it doesn't work again.
So at the moment i'm guessing there is something wrong with the SMC network cards and Windows XP.

[BipolarBill]

Something that you should be made aware of with both Win2K and XP is that they will both sometimes "disable" a network connection. Look at the status of a particular local area connection. It may indeed be disabled. Simply enable it if so.

[Flightace0]

What happens when i repair from the CD? Do i have to reinstall my programs, what files does it replace?

regards, Andrew

[BipolarBill]

What happens when i repair from the CD?

System files are replaced and hardware redetected.

Do i have to reinstall my programs

No sir.