Vista - Network and network notification icon issues

I have a minor issue and I can't seem to find any other cases quite like it:
I'm using Vista on a new machine, and I have internet access. However, the
network notification icon in the taskbar indicates I am not connected.
Rolling over the icon, I get "Connection Status: unknown" and something about
the server connection failing. Right-clicking on the icon gets a sluggish
response, sometimes no hightlight on the menu that opens up. Even if I can
get it to respond, it takes forever to bring up Network and Sharing Center
window. Usually Network and Sharing Center will just crash, and that is what
really bothers me, if I were to have a networking problem, I couldn't do
anything about it. I wish I knew how to make it function properly--not even
restoring factory settings on the machine (wiping the harddrive, etc.) helps.
I did so two days ago, and today it reoccurred.

mine is doing the same thing. i've also notices that it affects sound on my
computer as in with windows live messenger. essentially i just randomally
lose sound on different programs when i get the unknown server issue you
explained

"Jenny" wrote:

Huh, I don't think I've found a sound link, but I'm not currently using
Windows Live. It's really curious that it's misbehaving this way, when it
really is still functional. Makes networking a little more difficult, tho, as
it's sluggish about connecting. I hope other people start talking about it,
because it doesn't seem like there's much of a discussion yet.

"nathan" wrote: