Maximum PC

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, so I hope this is the right place for this topic.

I've been unable to connect to the internet in Windows for the past couple days. I've tried everything I could think of (checking all the cables, the seating of my ethernet PCI card, switching out my ethernet card for a wireless card, power cycling the router, disabling my firewall, etc.), and none of it has done anything. I thought it could be something wrong with the motherboard, but I can connect just fine on my linux install, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. I can't even access the router configuration through windows. When it tries to connect to the internet on startup, it hangs up while establishing the IP address. I'm really at my wit's end on this one, so any ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to the Forums! (Watch out for the monkeys. Just sayin'.)

What version of Windows are you running?

Have you tried creating a new network connection?

You mentioned reseating the PCI ethernet card, so I'll assume this is a desktop machine.

Have you tried installing the latest drivers?

Since Windows is unable to even get an IP address (and, it does this with several different network adapters), I'd suggest doing a TCP/IP reset.
Open a command prompt (in Vista or Win7, you'll need an Elevated command prompt), and run the following command: Reboot when it's done processing. This will reset the TCP/IP stack back to a 'clean' state, and should fix ya.

@ that Linux guy

I'm running XP, Home or Pro I think. Can't remember which one. If it makes a difference let me know and I'll figure it out. Every time I disable the connection and re-enable it, I think it creates a new one and gives it a new name (Network Connection 2, 3, 4...). I'm on #4 right now. As for the drivers, I tried to update them, but it was surprisingly difficult to determine whether or not I was downloading the correct ones. My ethernet card is a Netgear LNE100TX v5.2, or at least that's what it says on the card itself. However, on the Netgear site, the only options for hardware versions are v1 and v4, and in the drop down for one of those they had an option for v5 drivers, which is the one I got.

@ cup

Tried it a couple times, once with the network connection enabled and once with it disabled, neither one seemed to work.

Thanks for the effort guys. Any other ideas?

Huh? That's a Linksys model#.
Recheck?

is the IP Addressing Dynamic or Static? also, is the DNS automatically assigning your PC an address? if it is stuck on "acquiring IP address" that might be something to check.

Whoops! cup you are right it is a Linksys. My router is netgear.

bingojubes, the IP addressing is dynamic, and the DNS automatically assigns an address.

Address assignments (among other things) are handled by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server (such as on your router); DNS (Domain Name Service) translates domain names (e.g. www.maximumpc.com) to their IP addresses (e.g. 72.3.244.41)
Re-read earlier post: What firewall?
And, you said that Windows hangs on obtaining an IP address? Or, that your browser (if so, which one?) hangs on resolving the site name/adddress? Big difference.

I'd also like you to open a command prompt, and post the output of ipconfig /all
To do this: right-click anywhere in the command window > select all > <Enter>. Contents are now copied to the Clipboard; you can paste it into whatever. Since that PC is broken, I'd suggest pasting into Notepad, so you can sneakernet it (via USB key) to a working PC.
Also.... since you're posting from a different PC (but, on the same LAN, yes?), I'd also like you to post the output of ipconfig /all from that (working) PC, as well (for comparison purposes.)
Please indicate which is which. If possible, please also put each in [code] blocks - makes it a lot easier to read.