Unable to Make Connection To Internet

[JennX]

Last evening after starting up my computer, I was unable to connect to the internet. After several reboots of the computer and modem, there was still no resolution. All the other network connected devices were able to maintain an internet connection through both wired and wireless connections, so it wasn't an ISP outage and the router appears to be working as normal. There had been no tinkering of the router at any time.

My computer was telling me it was unable to find a network connection and that I should ensure a network cable was plugged in or to ensure it wasn't damaged. Neither the router's port or computer's adapter LEDs were illuminated to indicate a connection. I exchanged my ethernet cable between the wall jack and my computer which made no difference. I disconnected the cable from my computer and reconnected it to my laptop. I was able to make a connection. I concluded the issue was with my computer. Fearing that the onboard LAN adapter had failed, I went out and purchased a PCIe LAN adapter (TP-Link TG-3468 Network adapter) and installed it. The computer found it and installed drivers. Still, the problem persisted, Unable to find any connection.

A reboot of the modem and computer made no difference.

I disabled the onboard NIC through BIOS, uninstalled all instances of any network interfaces, and installed the drivers from the CD provided with the card. From there, a driver update attempt indicated the drivers were up to date. Still, unable to make a connection in either safe mode (with networking) or regular Windows 7 initialization. (Using Windows 7 64 bit OS)

A reboot of the modem and computer made no difference.

Tried: (as per https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15287/windows-why-can-not-get-connected)

netsh winsock reset and the result was "The following command was not found: winsock refresh.

ipconfig /release and the result was "An error occurred while releasing interface Local Area Connection : An address has not yet been associated with the network endpoint."

Then, ipconfig /renew which resulted in "No operation can be performed on Local Area Network while it has its media disconnected. An error occurred while releasing interface Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1 : The system cannot find the file specified."

Followed finally with ipconfig /flushdns which indicated "Successfully flushed the DNS resolver cache."

I tried a Windows repair, and that to had no positive results after rebooting. A virus check indicated no infection or concerns. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, automatic restore had been disabled, so I don't have a restore point to fall back on.

I hope someone is able to help find a solution. I thank all those who have taken this post into consideration. This has been crossposted here, and I'm looking to a group of other knowledgeable individuals to offer their suggestions.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Jenn,
have a look at this MS thread
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/299357

Roy

 

[JennX]

Thank you Roy for your help. I appreciate it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the solution needed. I still have the problem.

Last night, while trying to identify the cause, I stumbled on the likely culprit. Windows is reporting that I need to plug in a network cable. The network cable is clicked securely in place.

I had received this same error with both network cards, the online one and the one I purchased to replace it, the PCIe card. I have tried three different cables, from 3 different ports on my router with no resolution. I have no problem connecting with those same cables from any port on my router, to my laptop.

I've attempted a common online fix that was successful for many ... a simple solution involving unplugging the power and ethernet cables for 30+ minutes, followed by reconnection and rebooting. This made no difference regrettably.