Unidentified Network?

I am having a problem connecting to my home network with one of my computers. I have several computers in my house with various operating systems, some of which are connected to my router via Wi-Fi, others via ethernet. The one computer that I'm having the problem with is a Windows 7 Professional 64bit desktop that I have connected via ethernet. I have tested the cord I am using and the port on the router with another computer and experienced no problems, so I think the problem lies within the desktop. Here are the technical details:
Motherboard: MSI H67MA-E45 (I am using the built in ethernet port)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 with driver version 295.73 (Included because I've read that some NVIDIA products are causing networking problems in Windows 7)

The part that has me most confused is that I can sometimes connect to the network without problem, but the majority of the time I cannot. All I get is "Unidentified Network" and "No Internet Access". Additionally, I have discovered that I can always connect to the internet without problem when I plug the computer directly into my modem (but I then cannot access other networked devices).

Please let me know if I missed any necessary information. Any help is greatly appreciated.

If you can post a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine it would be most helpful. :)

chev65 said:

If you can post a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine it would be most helpful. :)

A screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine when connected to the modem or the router? Here is one taken when connected to the router.

The only problem I see in the ipconfig is that it appears as if you have a mix of DNS servers typed into your IPv4 properties. It shows Google as 8.8.8.8, then it shows the default gateway of your router which is 192.168.1.1, then it shows another incorrect gateway of 192.168.0.1 which doesn't relate to anything in your network.

This could be confusing DNS access for the network adaptor.

You might try removing the DNS server entries from the IPv4 properties then use the routers settings for DNS which is my preferred method. This assumes that you typed in two DNS servers into your routers set up page for DNS servers.

Google's DNS server addresses are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 so you might try typing those into your routers set up page after removing the IPv4 DNS entries.

Actually, I don't have any DNS servers typed into my IPv4 properties. (see attached)

mortrca said:

Actually, I don't have any DNS servers typed into my IPv4 properties. (see attached)

Then you might want to check the ones that are typed into the routers settings because only your default gateway should be showing up in the ipconfig for DNS servers. Do you have two routers in this network?

Do you have iTunes installed on this system?

Alright, I just checked and I have no DNS servers typed into my router's settings either. Also, 192.168.0.1 is my modem, so it does relate to the router in my network, but nothing else. Finally, no, I don't have iTunes installed.

mortrca said:

Alright, I just checked and I have no DNS servers typed into my router's settings either. Also, 192.168.0.1 is my modem, so it does relate to the router in my network, but nothing else. Finally, no, I don't have iTunes installed.

That is a strange Ip for a modem to have and it wouldn't normally show up as the DNS server. This could be why Windows thinks there is an Unidentified Network. Are you sure this isn't one of those modem/router combo units?

Ok so the DNS is somehow coming from the modem but it shows one DNS server as Google's 8.8.8.8 but we don't know where that one is coming from "maybe the modem", which is a strange way of obtaining the DNS.

Usually the DNS server would only come from the router and in the ipconfig the DNS server would show up as the default gateway of the router, which means it's getting the DNS from the router.

If you can go into the routers set up page, find the DNS settings and type in Google's DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, then if you have access to the modem's settings page at 192.168.0.1 then remove the DNS server IP's from there.

Both changes will require you to hit the save button which reboots the hardware.

mortrca said:

Alright, I found a place in my modem where there are two options, Dynamic DNS and Static DNS. Static DNS was selected and Google's DNS addresses were in the two boxes provided. I selected the Dynamic DNS option and Google's addresses disappeared. I then went to my router's settings and tried to add Google's servers for DNS, but I'm not very experienced with static IPs. Here are the settings as I defined them in my router:
Internet Setup:
Internet IP Address: 192.168.0.2 (The IP assigned to the router by the modem)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 (Default setting)
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1 (IP address of modem)
DNS 1: 8.8.8.8
DNS 2: 8.8.4.4

Network Setup:
Router Address: 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server: Enabled
Start IP Address: 192.168.1.100

Since applying these settings, I have checked my other computers and can still access the internet with them, but still can't access the internet with the "problem computer" when connected to the router. ipconfig/all information attached.

You see Modems do not have this type of adjustment but those combo unit modem/routers do.

The problem in your case is that you are using a modem/router combo plus another router in the same network. This is why Windows see's a secondary network. This is not the proper way to set up a reliable network.

This also causes you to have two default gateways among other things, it's simply not the correct way to set up a network and will give you problems such as you are describing with some machines working and others not working and giving error messages.

In order to fix all problems you need to get a standard modem "not a combo unit" and plug it into the WAN port on your router.

All problems with the Unidentified Network will go away after you do that.