My father is running WIN2k Professional and has had a few problems recently, this is his current problem.... at step3 of the connection wizard, it asks for the name of the ISP to be entered...he enters his ISP (which is Onetel) and it rejects the name completely and brings up a dialogue box asking for him to enter the name with spaces or periods. We have tried all sorts of names with no luck. Is there a simple fix where I can go into Regedit perhaps and reset a register?? Or is his installation of Win 2K corrupt??
At the moment he has no internet service at all as we cannot complete the wizard. Any ideas would be appreciated.

He's paying for that ISP, have him call them and see if they can sort this out for him.

Well, I've spoken to Onetel, the ISP and they have taken me through the installation and test procedure and the operator at Onetel is convinced that there is something corrupt in the Internet Connection Wizard in Windows that will not allow a name to be created for the connection to Onetel. Has anybody any more ideas on the subject?? As I post this, I'm of to Microsoft Support to see if I can find a KB article on this.

Regards,

Ian Thornton

Well folks, I've scoured Microsoft til I'm all moused out and the articles I've found aren't relevant to my problem. So....... does anybody have any idea on what to do with this Internet Connection Wizard that won't accept any input at step 3 of configuration????.... I'm totally out of ideas other than a complete re-install of the O/S.....

I have exactly the same problem - were you able to resolve?

This seems to be the most "shyed away from" W2K Pro problem that exists on this, or any other board.

Please tell me the steps you taken with internet connection wizard. I ask because a friend of mine at work had two problems; one is similar to yours but with a different ISP. His was a simple fix. He was doing it wrong. His ISP was a pop 3. Just an example.
The other problem happen on a laptop with a network card.
Jimbeau

Regarding this error:
Internet Connection Wizard:
'connection name' is not a valid name. The entry name must contain at least one character that is not a space and cannot begin with a period. Choose a different name.

I really don't think that the problem has anything to do with any ISP.

The people you speak to...at least, initially...when you call an ISP tech support agent, are, generally, just guessing.

If they refer you to a member of the elite tech support crew, they may...repeat may...be able to offer some insight into your problems.

Most of the time, they will try to convince you that the problem is with your machine...modem, OS, telephone line...anything other than their ISP service or their ISP's access numbers.

If you ask in-depth questions about your Operating System, they will refer you to the manufacturer.

They consider it the same as a pharmacist offering medical advice.

They don't want to get their company sued by some customer who took their advice and screwed-up his, or her computer.

After all, their jobs are on the line.

Regarding this particular issue, however, I believe that the problem is with the machine.

Microsoft addresses the problem...somewhat...in this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318183/en-us

(Note that this applies to SP1, SP2, and SP3. You probably have to uninstall SP4 and the "Rollup", if you have them installed.)

When it happened to me, I tried to start the Remote Access service, I get an "Access Denied" error splash.

(Kinda makes me think that my machine caught a nasty bug; but, no "AntiVirus" programs or "Malware Detector" programs could find any.)

I thought about uninstalling service packs, until I get back to one that doesn't hide the Microsoft Internet Explorer "Uninstall/Repair" option in the Control Panel's "Add/Remove Programs" window; in hopes of repairing the Internet Connection Wizard.

In my case, however, I was too quick to use the CCleaner (Freeware) program, without fully understanding the settings.

Stupid blunder on my part.

Really stupid.

I overwrote...seven times...all the Windows Update "uninstall" files, so I can't uninstall any of those updates and Service Packs.

I can either save all my data to CDs...or, move it via network cable from the "crippled" system, on my second computer, to this computer...and reinstall W2K; or, I can expend a lot of time (and aggravation) trying to "fix" this problem.

Who knows?

I might get lucky.

I doubt, however, that it would be a worthwhile pursuit.

I really think that the only answer to this one is to scrub, format, and reinstall.

...and do all those damned updates.

...again!

You know, I still think that Microsoft may be complicit in all of these issues.

I can't help thinking that all of these issues could have been "engineered out" prior to the Operating System's release...rather than possibly being deliberately "engineered into" it.