Win 7. Cannot connect to a network, no active network, but I'm online!

Hello, first post and hope that I might be able to get help here for a problem that is driving me crazy. Many thanks for taking the time to read below...

I wish to connect to my Homegroup. Win 7 says that I cannot as my location must be set to "Home". So I follow the link "What is a network location".

The next dialogue box says that I have no active networks so I click "Connect to a Network", which brings up the pop-up in the bottom right stating I'm not connected but there are connections available. The problem is - I AM CONNECTED and the internet is working perfectly fine in fact.

How can I get Windows to recognise my active connections, show me the icon for the network, and allow me to select home, work or private? As it stands, I just go on a merry round-about between these two dialogue boxes and never get any other options. Perhaps I need to go in to advanced options?

If it makes any difference, the Homegroup and the Network previously worked perfectly until I was asked to test another router by hooking it up to my laptop. Maybe I selected something other than Home at this point? I don't know. But since then it's been having this problem.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone could help.
Many thanks.

zoobaby said:

Hello, first post and hope that I might be able to get help here for a problem that is driving me crazy. Many thanks for taking the time to read below...

I wish to connect to my Homegroup. Win 7 says that I cannot as my location must be set to "Home". So I follow the link "What is a network location".

The next dialogue box says that I have no active networks so I click "Connect to a Network", which brings up the pop-up in the bottom right stating I'm not connected but there are connections available. The problem is - I AM CONNECTED and the internet is working perfectly fine in fact.

How can I get Windows to recognise my active connections, show me the icon for the network, and allow me to select home, work or private? As it stands, I just go on a merry round-about between these two dialogue boxes and never get any other options. Perhaps I need to go in to advanced options?

If it makes any difference, the Homegroup and the Network previously worked perfectly until I was asked to test another router by hooking it up to my laptop. Maybe I selected something other than Home at this point? I don't know. But since then it's been having this problem.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone could help.
Many thanks.

You might want to try using the sfc/scannow command because it looks like some files are missing.

Just type sfc/scannow into an elevated command prompt and let it run till complete.

Many thanks to both jhansen965 and chev65.

Unfortunately, I was unable to resolve the issue. Disable and then enable didn't work (even with computer restart) and alas, the sfc/scannow command wasn't successful.

I think the idea that files are missing could be correct - Windows keeps wanting to install updates (practically every single day) which I just assumed was due to installing a new version of Norton. Is this looking like a Windows reinstallation?