Windows 7 - A solution to "Unknown network - no connection to Inter

I found a solution to the problem "Unknown network - no connection to Internet". For me, this problem seemed to develop after I had a problem getting the drivers for both my printers set up correctly. I don't know if that was related to the cause, but after that every time I started Windows 7 I could not connect to the internet. The 'troubleshooter' couldn't find or fix the problem. I could fix it by disabling, then re-enabling the network adapter through the control panel. However, that only fixed the problem until the next time I started Windows.

What permanently solved the problem:
1. Go to Device Manager
2. Find your ethernet network adapter, then right-click on it. Select the option "Uninstall"; this is different from the option disable. You will get a message asking 'are you sure?' click yes, you are sure.
3. Actually, that's it, you are fixed. After doing the above, your network card is listed as unknown device. Don't worry. Restart Windows, it will recognize your network card as a new device and do a fresh install of the correct driver.

Anyway, that worked for me. It is actually an old Windows trick to get the system to fix itself, even when it otherwise tells you the driver is working ok.
This worked on my system; your mileage may vary. I have a Sony Vaio RC-110G, intel dual core processor, 2 GB ram, running Windows 7 RTM Ultimate edition, none of which should really matter. The network 'card' is onboard Intel Pro/1000 PM network adapter. I was going to search for a new driver at Intel's site when the above trick dawned on my crusty old brain.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums, Dante, and many thanks for posting your solution. No doubt others will run across similar problems and your post may help many.

That's why we are here, to help others become familiar with Windows 7!

Robert

Thanks, Robert. Actually, the solution I described above only worked briefly for me, as I found out right after I posted. It still may be useful to someone else.
I found what seems to be the *real* solution based on info from other posts here. The problem in fact was Bonjour. This surprised me since I don't have iTunes on this machine. But I do have Photoshop CS3 and, sure enough, there is a Bonjour folder in Program Files. Oddly enough Bonjour is not listed in the Uninstall program list in the Control Panel.
Based on a post I found in the Wikipedia entry for Bonjour, it is quite hard to remove. I sidestepped this problem by just turning off the service that it installs. To do this, go Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. The first service in the list has this strange name:
“##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##”. This is the service that Bonjour installs.
Right-click on it, then click Properties. First you need to stop it, then change its Startup Type to disabled. After I did that, my network problem was fixed, and this time the fix seems to be persistent, maybe permanent.

Here's an odd aspect to this problem: the machine that had this network problem did not have iTunes and Bonjour was not in the list of installed programs. Now I have another machine (that I built myself) that has the identical version of Windows 7 and it has iTunes and PS CS3 installed and on that machine Bonjour does show up on the installed programs list, and that machine did not have any network/internet problems at all!
A mystery wrapped in an enigma. If I find out more, I will report it here.

Again, thank your for your contrubution to Windows Seven Forums. Your posts will always be welcome.

Robert

This was the first answer on my problem that actually works! I've had this problem occured when I also installed Adobe CS3 Suite and I couldn't find the bogus network thingy...
Thx again man, you've helped me from goin insane

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums, Berry. We are glad you were able to find a solution here. If you haven't already, there is an extensive tutorial section for you to check out as well.

Windows 7 - Tutorial Index

Cheers!
Robert

Hi Robert, thx, much appreciated, found this website today and i'm goin to follow it, thats for sure!

I solved the problem permanently by manually assigning my IP and my DNS servers. I actually had two Windows 7 computers do this and after tearing out my hair trying to figure out what this "Unknown Network" was, I came up with the old fallback... fixed IP addresses and DNS.

This is easier than you think and even if you don't know the DNS addresses for your IP provider, just put in your router/gateway address instead and it will forward your DNS addresses on to the provider for you.

Thanks for posting, Rockeiro, and welcome to Windows Seven Forums! Glad to hear you got yours to work.

Happy Surfing!
Robert

Bonjour "services" get installed during CS installation to help out with Adobe's Drive/Server/File manager on the chance that you'll be working with MACs on your network.

If you look through the installation setup during CS you'll see then.