Vista - Vista Network Crisis

Experienced user here, reduced to the point of banging head against the wall and spamming forums with my issue hoping for some luck. I'll try to make this as detailed as possible, complete with an image.

Problem: (Nutshell) My desktop computer cannot connect to the home network, and thus, no internet.

Details:

Other computers connect just fine, both wirelessly and wired, thus the modem and router are not to blame.

Spontaneous failure. Worked fine in the afternoon, in the evening (without an update or restart in between) it would not connect to the internet.

Network and Sharing Center states that it can connect to the network (which it has always listed as 'unidentified network' in this particular panel), however attempts to access the router or modem via 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 respectively both fail.

The following image includes useful information for I hope somebody to help pick out the issue. My attempted solutions, all which have failed will continue after.

Image contains cmd prompt with ipconfig/all and a ping of yahoo.com, Network and Sharing Center, Local Area Connection Status, Network Connection Details.



When clicking the "x" between unidentified network and internet, Windows network diagnostics offers the following: Plug a cable into the network adapter "Local Area Connection 2', Automatically get new IP settings for for the network adapter "Local Area Connection", and A problem with your network router or broadband modem might be preventing an internet connection.

All three of these issues seem to be red herrings. My motherboard (full system specs to follow) contains two network adapters, (1 and 2, for argument) and this solution pops up for whichever adapter isn't currently connected to the ethernet cable to the router. It also doesn't appear when the disconnected adapter is disabled. The Automatically get new IP settings choice, always fails to correct the problem. the third points me to the help dialogs, which are of no use.

I briefly received errors similar to the one stated here windows 32 bit - nforce networking controller issue however, since following solutions in that and other similar threads, that particular error has stopped occurring. (And while it pointed to the nforce controller, I never actually recieved the error31 in the device manager, which never acknowledged that the devices were malfunctioning.

I've also attempted to update the drivers, downgrade the drivers, switch from the nvidia nforce networking controller to the microsoft default. I've attempted to uninstall and reinstall the drivers and software, and manually remove teh driver from the system32 drivers folder. Many restarts later, still no luck.

I've seemed to narrow it down that it is a computer issue and not a network or modem issue, although I have also attempted to reset and power cycle both the DSL modem and the linksys router, without complication, as the laptop I'm currently typing on is successfully internet connected.

My confusion other than why this is happening at all, is that the computer claims to be able to connect to the network in the network and sharing center page, but not the network to the internet, as the other computers can connect to the internet, and the desktop cannot access 192.168.1.1 (the linksys router).

Further attempts at forcing the network adapter into fulltime 100Mbps full duplex mode, and switching the IPv4 and IPv6 to their alternate settings, as suggested by some other forum posts to which I can't remember the addresses have also failed.

The only progress I've seemed to make is to eliminate some obvious issues, and remove the NVIDIA nForce related error. I did install the nforce_winvista32.15.08_english file which was apparently the update to the adapter, but after further failures and more forum reading I did a system rollback several days previous, to remove it and any other recent updates, so that should be a non-issue. The computer is currently at an 'update-state' at which it should be working flawlessly, yet it is not. Thus my frustration.

The computer itself is as a home-built machine:

Asus Striker II NSE
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz CPU at stock clock speeds
4.00GB Corsair XMS
System Disk is a 74GB WD Raptor
Additional Disks are WD Caviar 500 and WD Caviar 1000 GB disks
nVidia 8800GTS x 2 video cards linked in SLI
Coolermaster 1000W PSU
Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer Audio

All wrapped in a Kandalf LCS case liquid cooling the processor, with a second, separate liquid cooling circuit taking care of the video cards.

I use my computer for work and school (Architectural Design), and without an internet connection, things are going to be rather difficult for me.

Its my baby, and it doesn't love me right now. Help me?

And thats about where I am at the moment. Other than another forum post suggesting that I download an nVidia Chipset Drivers file, which for some reason doesn't recognize Windows as being Windows, so it refuses to install, thus modifying nothing. Any input is appreciated at this point.

Additional:

Connecting the ethernet cable to different ports on the router fails, as does connecting it directly to the modem.

Several restarts fail to knock anything loose so to speak, nor does leaving it off for approximately 8 hours and starting up again.

There is no wireless internet built into the computer, and while I have the ability to install a wireless card as a last resort, I'd have to replace the audio card, which, naturally I'd like to have installed, not to mention the superior performance of using a wired connection. So that seems to be a last resort, however, I may have to try it if it would allow me to ask Vista to automatically scan the internet for a fix of some sort. But I won't do it unless somebody here suggests it might be fruitful, since adding the wireless card is a temporary fix and not a permanent solution.

And.... thats about all I can think of right now. If I'm leaving out any pertinent detail let me know.

Solutions :-), questions, advice, all welcome, nothing is too small or too silly a "have you tried this?".... I'm at the bottom of the barrel, and I appreciate any and all help. After this comes paying somebody way to much to try the things I've already tried.

-TurboNitroMonkey

Just bumping my own thread, still not getting anywhere, got a suggestion on another thread that was fruitless, but the more information that might help someone help me, the better off right?

YounGun said: Hi,
From your screenshot I can see that the computer is unable to get an IP address: 169.254.x.x is the automatic private ÏP adressing, which the computer uses whener it is not assigned a static IP address or it cannot contact a DHCP server to get an IP address.

For starters, please go to Network and sharing center > Manage network connections > right click the connection you are using > Properties > double click on IPV4 > set the IP address 192.168.1.9 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1 and as nameserver put 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Tell us how that works out.


I did the above, and the results for Windows Network Diagnostics are: "Cannot communicate with Primary DNS Server(208.67.222.222)" "Network diagnostics pinged the remote host but did not receive a response." It presents me with the options: A problem with your network router or broadband modem might be preventing an internet connection, and gives me the power cycle suggestion, Change the settings for network adapter "Local Area Connection", and Reset the network adapter "Local Area Connection". Oh my. Well, not quite lions and tigers and bears, but I'm still in the jungle.

Where to go from here?

Thankye kindly, and keep those suggestions coming.

-TNM

Again, Bumping myself, got some help on other fora, no results, just trying to keep the information all over, hopefully somebody can see it and point me in the right direction:

Thanks for all the posts, I’ll respond to them in more or less the order suggestions come up, for clarity, which will also be sequentially how I act, so backtracking is possible if necessary.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 responded with 4x “Reply from 169.254.73.210: Destination host unreachable.” Followed by Packets: Sent 4, Received 4, Lost 0.

I am still unable to reach the router or the modem’s UI from the desktop, although I can access the router’s interface through a wireless source, or wired through a laptop, and the modem’s UI through direct wired connection from a laptop, as per usual.

I have been unable to locate any applicable driver updates, some were found for the included and unused soundcard, and for raid controllers, again not applicable. I’ve located updates for my video cards as well, from nVidia, however, again, not applicable to this particular problem. I’ll hold off on patching extraneous devices until we solve the core problem, the networking interface failure.

Attempts to manually set my NIC to the router’s settings, failed with the error “Cannot Communicate with Primary DNS Server(192.168.0.1). When setting values, I chose the ones from the Router tab of my Linksys interface as found at 192.168.1.1.
Data provided below, please note these are copied and pasted from the Router status, and the settings reflect functioning, working, successful values for all computers on the network, save for the desktop which inexplicably and spontaneously failed to connect and now remains in that state.

Firmware Version: v4.21.1, Nov. 6, 2006
Current Time: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:12:06
MAC Address: 00:0C:41:75:E0:B2
Router Name: WRT54G
Host Name:
Domain Name: domain_not_set.invalid
Configuration Type
Login Type:
Automatic Configuration - DHCP
IP Address: 76.199.168.48
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 76.199.168.49
DNS 1: 192.168.0.1
DNS 2:
DNS 3:
MTU: 1500

**Step Skipped: Before following the instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 and editing the registry, I read through it and that issue doesn’t seem to apply to my situation, given that my problem doesn’t envolve changing OS’s recently, that both XP, Vista 32 and Vista 64 have successfully connected to the internet, and the desktop connection spontaneously failed. Personally, I’d rather not screw with the registry unless I know for sure it is the culprit, or that it is easily undone should it be a required check.

I’m under the mindset of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So I’m hesitant at the moment to try updating or changing anything from the settings of the functioning router and modem at the moment. They are working as always, for every computer but the desktop. If I monkey with the settings in them, chances could be that I’d have to start troubleshooting them to get ANY internet connection in the house functioning before I return to the desktop. Occam’s razor, the simplest explanation is often the best, the problem is clearly with the desktop computer, not the laptops, the network or the modem. I’m going to stick to trying to fix that, unless somebody gives me an argument to the otherwise that seems logical enough to try, with low enough risk that I’ll be able to fix anything that goes south :-P

So… Nicholas Li, I thank you for those suggestions, but for the time being I’m going to try other routes of attack.

Regarding your suggestion 3: I have done so to no avail. Disable, remove, update and troubleshoot those connections, no dice. I had a virtual one for a while ‘attached’ to one of my Local Area Connections, but no longer. Local Area Connection 1 is being used, device name NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, its twin, Local Area Connection 2, has either been active but not connected, or disabled, neither affecting the performance of #1. I’ve also switched cables between the two, and gotten no difference.

Sigh. So… Next post:

As stated earlier, Pinging 192.168.1.1 resulted with four copies of the following “Reply from 169.254.73.210: Destination host unreachable.” And then something to the tune of: Followed by Packets: Sent 4, Received 4, Lost 0.

When pinging 4.2.2.2, I get 4 results of:

“PING: transmit failed, error code 1231.”

And then the statistics are 4 sent and 4 lost, of course.