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Mobile broadband connect pen trouble - Unidentified network everytime
Greetings to the forum. :)
Several times I have found help here "just" by reading the tutorials and forum posts. And this alone makes me in advance say and repeat thank you to the community! :) Yet I'm found in need of posting my own help request this time, so I reckon... (It's sort of cross-posting from another forum, which I'm aware isn't the most welcomed practice, but since we kinda got stuck for ideas there, so I thought of extending the help request here, hoping it isn't a much wrong did?...)
Summarizing the situation, it's my brother's laptop (Toshiba Satellite L500 running Windows 7 HP SP1 32-bits) which now won't connect to the internet using the mobile broadband connect pen he uses, Huawei E392. It did before, always has, yet now it just doesn't. (He had installed another connect pen, Huawei E220, "over" the installation of the E392, i.e. he didn't uninstall that one prior to installing the E220, and somehow ended up with things screwed up. Even the uninstaller for Huawei E220, don't know why, didn't work properly then, oddly removing various files that had nothing to do with the installation of that connect pen, like most of the shortcuts in the Start Menu just disappeared (!)after running it, so we could only rid of the installation of Huawei E220 with a System Restore to some point before it was installed at all. But even then, in the end now Huawei E392 won't connect to the internet.)
I don't suppose is anything wrong with the connect pen, since I tested it in another computer (SO: XP SP3) and it works just fine there.
In the laptop, though, things aren't working out. (Just to mention beforehand that the laptop has been scanned for malware (Avast AV + MBAM + SAS + TDSS Killer) and no threat was found.)
In the Network and Sharing Center, it just stays as "Unidentified Network". If running Windows Network Diagnostics, it comes up with the following: "The mobile broadband service isn't being executed.". And if choosing "Try to apply this correction as admin.", it every time just ends up saying "Not corrected.".
Checking the IPv4 protocol properties for the connection, go figure why, it is wrongly set to use specific IP and DNS addresses, with all fields being blank. If changing both those settings to obtain the addresses automatically, then it does connect to the internet. However, it still stays as "Unidentified Network", and more, the network icon in the task bar just keeps the same red cross over it as if there was no connection to the internet, even though there is then. Also, if now again running Windows Network Diagnostics, it does still return the same message, "The mobile broadband service isn't being executed.", although, if now choosing "Try to apply this correction as admin.", it does now result in "Corrected.". However, if running Windows Network Diagnostics again, it just says again "The mobile broadband service isn't being executed.". Furthermore, and again go figure why, after removing the pen, the next time it is plugged back on, the settings are simply lost, and it just gets set back to use specific IP and DNS addresses, with all fields being blank all the same.
Another detail I've noticed (not sure whether relevant?):
In the network properties, under "This connection uses the following items:", there are (only?) three items listed: "Client for Microsoft Networks", "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)", whereas in the other computer in which I've successfully tested the connect pen, I remember there were further items listed...
Then again, funny thing is that I've by now tried yet another Huawei connect pen in this laptop, E3131, same ISP, different software version, and it just "behaves" the same: the connection is also reported as "Unidentified Network", the Windows Network Diagnostics always returns the same message for it too, that "The mobile broadband service isn't being executed.", the network icon in the taskbar does also keep the red cross over it even when there is an active connection to the internet, and the IPv4 settings aren't saved either if changed to automatic. Plus, as I say, that very detail which I was mentioning above, and which repeats for this mobile broadband connection using Huawei E3131: in the network properties, under "This connection uses the following items:", there are also only (?) those three same items listed.
Now, this connect pen, E3131, was borrowed from a cousin, who uses it in a laptop running Windows Vista, and I could verify that in there, in the network properties, under "This connection uses the following items:", there are further items listed: "QoS Packet Scheduler", "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)", "Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder" and "Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver". (As there were also on XP as mentioned previously.) Which has me wondering, whether there's perhaps something actually missing or misconfigured in Windows itself, in the laptop of my brother?... Perhaps something that got "broken" along the way, with all the uninstalls and reinstalls for the connect pens and the back and forth System Restores done in the hope of solving things out?...
I'm at a loss. Any idea why things are acting up this way? If anyone can give a hand at trying to sort this out, any hint, anything, I'd be most appreciated. I'm at the point of asking: think trying a Windows repair install might make any difference at all to the case?... Or is the only resort left the last resort: reinstall Windows from scratch?...
Thank you greatly in advance for your time and possible help. :)
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) It's the Windows Firewall. (The antivirus, that one's referred in the initial post, it's Avast Free.) Or should I actually post all this in that same form of a list, as in the