Internet not working (Wireless & LAN)

M

mzah8

Geek Trainee
Hello,

Hope I can get some help here. :)

My laptop (Dell Inspiron 700m, running Windows XP Home Edition SP 2) stopped being able to connect to the Internet one day. It just happened; I am unaware of any particular settings having been changed prior to that.

My home wireless does not work on it but neither does my home LAN. Other laptops are fine connecting to either. (The Intel Proset Wireless says "no supported wireless adapters available on the system" - I did try replacing the driver but this did not work, and anyway I think the problem is with connecting to the Internet in general.)

I have tried using System Restore to a state before my Internet problems started. This didn't work.

I used ipconfig from the command prompt and there is an IP address for the Local Area Connection, but for the Wireless Network Connection it says "Media disconnected" even though my Wireless switch on my laptop is turned on. Not sure what this means or if this is relevant

Under Device Manager, these are my devices listed under Network adapaters:
* 1394 Net Adapter
* the Bluetooth adapter (not really relevant)
* Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
* Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection)
...and they are all listed as working properly. (No yellow question marks at the icons!)

I have read different things on different forums but thought it'd be best to post my details here. A friend of mine tells me my Ethernet card is probably fried. Is there any way I can verify this, and what can I do if this is true?

Thanks so much.
 
While it's certainly possible for the network adapter to fry, I'm not sure that's what's happening in your case. Reason being, the Ethernet and wireless adapters seem to be manufactured by separate companies and should therefore be fairly independent of one another. You'd think it rare that one should fail, let alone both at once.

Is it possible to boot to a 3rd-party OS and try the hardwired connection then? You can get a live Linux CD, e.g. Ubuntu, for free and it will be completely independent of any Windows problems you might have. If there's something like malware or a malfunctioning firewall messing up the network stack, that's a good way to find out.
 
Thank you very much for your quick reply earlier this week.

I don't currently have a live Linux CD - I do have an Ubuntu installation CD but haven't had the time to set it up - are there any other ways to check out the problem?

I've also posted this on techsupportforum.com (sorry, just like getting a second opinion :chk:) where it was suggested I try resetting TCP/IP stack and WINSOCK entries (not that I have any idea what they are) to installation defaults via command prompt, and reboot. This didn't work.

It did suddenly occur to me that I hadn't mentioned that I've been using Litestep. Not sure if it's relevant, but after realising that I rebooted back to the Windows shell and noticed that instead of the Intel PROSet/Wireless software (which still showed the "no supported wireless adapters" error), my wireless was being managed by Windows. Also, it was able to detect wireless networks!

However I am only able to connect to my home network with "limited or no connectivity", and there's no Internet connection at all; whereas with a different laptop on the same network, the Internet connection is fine.

Any further diagnoses or bright ideas? Again, thanks for your earlier reply. :)
 
AT said:
While it's certainly possible for the network adapter to fry, I'm not sure that's what's happening in your case.
Click to expand...
sorry to disagree AT, but it is possible for both devices to fail, so, we'll assume both devices have intact failed until we prove otherwise downloading a LiveCD (personally i'd choose Kubuntu) but any LiveCD will boot fine

is your Ubuntu install CD also a LiveCD ?
does LAN (wired) connection work with LiveCD ?
 
donkey42 said:
sorry to disagree AT, but it is possible for both devices to fail...
Click to expand...
Don't really want to argue, but I never said that it was impossible, I said it was unlikely. And it is unlikely for two separate components to fail simultaneously.

Once you've tested the hardware with a different OS, you can be more certain of what's happening. If there's something nasty that has hijacked the Windows network stack, using a separate OS running will make it obvious.
 
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