Problems identifying a LAN network?

[Saturdayskids]

Hey, I'm a college student and my connection has worked fine for months now,
no problems at all..

The other day the internet just wouldn't work.. Nothing I could do would
make it work. Restarting or shutting off the computer didn't help, unplugging
the ethernet cord or anything also won't work. Disabling the connection and
diagnosing and repairing does nothing.

So I tried the connection with my laptop (also running Vista) and there
wasn't any problem at all! Weird.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? It seems out of the blue my
desktop computer refuses to detect the network my dorm uses, but my laptop
can no problem.

 

[Malke]

Hey, I'm a college student and my connection has worked fine for months
now, no problems at all..

The other day the internet just wouldn't work.. Nothing I could do would
make it work. Restarting or shutting off the computer didn't help,
unplugging the ethernet cord or anything also won't work. Disabling the
connection and diagnosing and repairing does nothing.

So I tried the connection with my laptop (also running Vista) and there
wasn't any problem at all! Weird.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? It seems out of the blue my
desktop computer refuses to detect the network my dorm uses, but my laptop
can no problem.

Since we can't see your desktop computer and you haven't told us anything
about it, we can't give you focused advice. Here are some suggestions:

1. Do a System Restore to when things worked. To run System Restore, go to
the Start Orb and in the Start Search box type "System Restore" without the
quotes. System Restore will appear in the Programs result. Click on it,
allow the UAC prompt, and follow the wizard.

2. If that doesn't help, look in Event Viewer for clues.
Start Orb>Search box>type: eventvwr.msc

3. Look in Device Manager to see if your network adapter has an issue. If it
does, uninstall it and then reboot. Vista will find the hardware and
install the drivers.

4. You didn't tell us how your computer connects to the network. In my son's
college dorm room, he connects either by plugging an ethernet cable into a
dataport on the wall or wirelessly. So check your hardware (ethernet cable,
dataport) to make sure it is working.

If none of that works for you, you will need to narrow down the
troubleshooting further by answering:

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time things
worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Malke