XP internet problem

Hiya, i have been asked to fix a problem with a friends xp machine. The problem is that even tho everything seems to be fine, it wont connect to the internet. It was on dialup but to test it i connected it to my lan

The tcp/ip settings are fine, everything appears to be setup correctly but it cant seem to get ip details from the dhcp server. I cant see anything wrong with it at all. This is exactly the reason why i dont use XP!!!

Does anyone have any ideas or should i just format and reinstall? i would prefer to fix it but unless anyone has had this problem before, i have not other option.

Cheers for any comment, please state the obvious because i do forget things now and then.

Chris.

 

You really should use XP its a great OS. Far better than anything else on the market.

First things first, have you checked.
Cable connected?
DHCP is switched on?
Can you try it on a different network with a fixed IP?
Tested the NIC/Modem actually works?
Do you have the correct protocols installed?
Over protective firewall?

 

Ok i think i had best explain a little better what it is i have done.

First of all, i dislike xp immensly (one big version of ms clippy from office!!)

anyway lol,

The computer normally uses dialup and has worked for ages with it. I connected it to my lan with net access. i checked all tcp/ip settings using the normal properties and ipconfig from cmd. it has dhcp enabled and i have tried it by giving it all of the info it needs instead to check. the net card is installed properly, the firewall is disabled and i have checked for silly little things like possible browser problems etc. its not a happy computer!

anything else i might have missed?