Suddenly no internet access anymore

[Daevius]

Internet used to work fine but has always been a pain to set up. This morning I _suddenly_ had no connectivity anymore whats-o-ever, it worked fine yesterday. I've had this problem before (where suddenly the internet is gone) but this time I've been unable so far to find the culprit.

I am running Win7 32bit Ultimate, on an Asus M3N78-VM motherboard (LAN chip Realtek RTL8211C). I have the nVidia nForce network driver (no idea how I got that, can't find updates either). I am also running Hamachi, perhaps this gives trouble?

The problem:
Whenever I changed some settings in the network configuration (the LAN adapter -> configure), then when I press close in the adapter window it more often then not freezes. I have to bring it down with the Task Manager, or restart the computer. Same thing whenever I disable / enable the adapter, it just freezes (I must do a hard reset then!).

This is a frustration for long, and I guess the cause of the internet problems. It can have internet but whenever I need to fix it, like now, I just can't get through. The following post used to work: http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/12759-possible-solution-unidentified-network-access.html but doesn't anymore (it always freezes when I set the Network Address).

This is what ipconfig /all gives:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Taco-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Hamachi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Hamachi Network Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-23-C3-E7-12-6D
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 34-67-54-57-65-65
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d59f:7e23:843f:92c8%13(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.146.200(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 268444181
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-A3-21-36-00-22-15-B4-49-63

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{F68B6DC3-FC63-40EA-AB07-C133FB16B94B}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

I have a router, on IP 192.168.1.254, a SpeedTouch 5x6. Static IP or DHCP doesn't matter for me, whichever works.
What is weird also, is that the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0, instead of 255.255.255.0, problem?

I hope this doesn't come down to reinstalling Win7 (and I'm not sure if that's going to solve it...).
Thank you for the help!

EDIT:
To note, I don't see the router, and consequentially the internet neither of course. Also, I barely see the internet connection at the back of my PC blinking. It's on, but hardly sending stuff.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

When your computer says it has an IP of 169.254.146.200 or subnet 255.255.0.0, that means it wasn't able to get an IP address from your router's DHCP server.

First thing I would try is "ipconfig /release" then "ipconfig /renew" and then "ping 192.168.1.254" to see if you get a response. If not, "ipconfig /a" again and check to see if your 169.254.146.200 IP was replaced with 192.168.1.xxx.

Let me know.

 

[Daevius]

Thanks for the reply!

When I entered the command "ipconfig /release" and pressed enter, it showed: "Windows IP Configuration" and then the CLI freezes. It looks like it still is busy, or it just usually takes long, but it never finishes where I can enter a new command.

I guess something is wrong with the driver or with the hardware...?

Thanks

 

[Jacee]

Have you tried a winsock repair? (elevated command prompt)
netsh winsock reset
Reboot

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Have you tried a winsock repair? (elevated command prompt)
netsh winsock reset
Reboot

That would be the only other thing you can do at this point that I can think of.

 

[Daevius]

Thanks for the replies guys, however when I turned my PC on yesterday, the internet suddenly worked again. It's really weird, it just didn't work for one full day =/ (even after like 100 reboots).

I'll try the repair next time it acts up (probably next month =/)...

 

[whs]

One possibility is a problem with the IP address. Next time go into the Network and Sharing center, click on the red X. When it comes back with the message, one of the choices is to get a new IP address - click that.