Vista - Network cable is NOT unplugged...hello windows!

I have seen many posts here about network cable unplugged issues and i am having similar and other strange issues in Vista Home Premium x64 on HP Paviollion.

The issues seem to have originated with one of the updates...then again, i've seen posts here that others have started having trouble after using a router. Does window not have a clue what it's doing?

anyway, ipconfig reports the net cable is unplugged and I know the cable is good, whatever the case, I cannot connect to my network or directly to internet using ethernet...

in addition to that, for a 2 days, i had my girlfriends computer (Vista x32) plugged into mine so she could use the internet through me...then it stopped working and we both have the same problem(network cable unplugged). One clue that maybe helpful to someone this that when I a plug into another computer or network, and I am using wireless internet at the time...it ceases to work although it shows the wireless as connected to UNIDENTIFIED NETWORK(MYINTERNET PROVIDER) when i mouseover the system tray icon (the wired net still says network cable unplugged regardless of what I try;drives, restart, reenable etc)

Does anyone Really know where this problem originates since it's so common? Should I just give it up and reinstall XP until Vista works well enough to be useful?

hi warmbetty welcome to vista forum,

If the linkstatus is good , the led's on your network adapter(you can find it back side of your cpu) will glow. Have a look at your network adapter while you are experiencing this problem.

You mean take apart my laptop? There are no external indicators (HP Pavillion). This problem happened simultaneously on both my and my girlfriend's laptops...it seems unlikely there is anything wrong with both of our NIC cards. And as both cables i have work between isp modem and router, there is nothing wrong there either. All lights (that should be lit) are lit on router and modem.

It seems to me that somehow windows is looking at cached data somewhere and ignoring what the NIC is telling it.