Need help with wired network failure in small office

[Xmodalloy]

Hello, I am the son of the owners of a small town newspaper, and am the normal computer technician for the office. There was recently a major computer failure, someone brought in a virus on a flash drive, and the virus scanner did not catch it in time, the machines were running Windows XP. When the virus was removed, it took a chunk of windows with it, and the computers refused to boot.
I asked my parents (who are the owners of the paper) if they wanted to try it out with windows 7, that way the UAC should catch any future viruses before they have a chance to embed themselves into the OS, or delay it until AVG can scan the device and delete it. Anyway, they said they wanted to try it, but I am having a very hard time setting it up. The network fails when I first turn on the machine, this includes Internet and networking with the three machines that are there. One machine is running 32 bit windows 7 while the other two are running 64 bit. I have to pull the Ethernet cord out of the 64 bit machines and put it in a different slot on the router to get it to connect, but the older 32 bit one works fine.
I am suspecting the router, when the troubleshoot feature works, it says "Invalid IP address" other times it doesn't work at all. Once the network is up and running, it works fine all day, until it needs to be restarted. Also, I run the computers without passwords when they start up, so when I tried to connect to the network as a "Work" Connection, I had no password to enter in the connect computers, so I switched to "Home" Network, and used the "Homegroup" feature to network them.
When the computers turn on, it takes forever to "Identify" the network type, and then it labels it as a Unknown Public Network, and there is no Internet or network connectivity. There is Adobe CS3 installed on all the machines, and I already took off the Bonjour service.
What is going wrong? It's making my parents very angry when they start up their computers. A newspaper needs this to be reliable, what have I screwed up? Is there a chance that the router is just too old to work? Is it something to do with having 64 bit and 32 bit computers on the same router?

The specs on the computers are:
Back-Desk:
Dell Optiplex GX260
Single 2GHz processor
1.5GB RAM
32 bit windows 7

Main Storage Computer:
Dell Inspiron 530S
Dual 1.8GHz processor
2GB RAM
64 bit Windows 7

Main Working Computer:
Dell Inspiron 530S
Dual 2.5GHz processor
3GB RAM
64 bit windows 7

The Router
NETGEAR Model FVS318

Hope Someone Knows what has gone wrong or what needs to happen.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Jacee]

There might be something of value in this article: Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

Also, make sure your drivers are up to date.

 

[Xmodalloy]

Forgot to mention that it's all windows 7 ultimate edition if you need that info.

 

[patwhatsthat]

Are these your old xp machines that you've installed Win7 on or were they purchased with preinstallation. How much third party software, like antivirus / internet security suites do you have installed on them and since it's a networking issue. Your adapter make and model numbers would be helpful along with a screen shot of ipconfig /all

 

[Qdos]

Three computers all running W7 can be networked exactly the same way as you did in Win XP, using a workgroup. Some current advice is that the new Homegroup uses a protocol which is causing some network adapters to drop out frequently - or refuse to connect altogether, hence you might be better to use a workgroup until W7 SP1 comes out.

UAC will not and cannot stop all viruses or malware. It can help in limited numbers of cases, but it's not a solution in itself, you should still install a reliable security product suite of some sort.

I hasten to add that if you'd installed a drive imaging system, like Ghost or Acronis TrueImage, you'd have been easily able to recover your prior XP systems - and such software is equally valuable under Windows 7.

 

[Xmodalloy]

These machines had windows XP installed on them by Dell, I took the documents off the drives using a Linux LiveCD and then formatted the drives. After formatting the drives, I installed new copies of windows 7 ultimate.
There isn't much 3rd party software, just AVG antivirus.
Other software would be Adobe CS3 and Microsoft Office 2003 (because the owners do not like 2007).
The Adapter is listed as an "Intel(R) 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection" on the two machines that don't work right when they start up.
On the ipconfig /all, do you want that before or after I fix the Internet?

To Qdos:
Thanks for the advice, I will check it out as soon as possible.

 

[Xmodalloy]

Sorry guys, looks like It's just not going to work, going back to XP because some of the necessary programs are having issues working, and it just isn't working out.
Sorry for the trouble guys.

 

[Jacee]

Good luck! ...
Some of the problems with connection could also have been with AVG. The performance is not what it used to be.

 

[Qdos]

I wouldn't give up as easily as all that. Remember that you can set up your networking through your router without the router connected to the internet - therefore you should be able to set everything up safely, before installing AVG... (providing any archivage attached the the system on non boot partitions has been checked and is bug free).

 

[TaraSWinTeam]

As stated before in the post, make sure your drivers are all up to date and follow these quick instructions for setting up a workgroup: Join or create a workgroup.

Good Luck!
Tara
Windows Outreach Team