I've spent at least 10 hours trying to figure out how to fix a problem with my PC. Now that it's been overcome, I thought I'd go ahead and post some information about it in case anyone might benefit.
For the record, I'm running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 and, though I have a fairly analytical mind, I'm not exactly a PC or networking expert.
It seems the electrical power went out a few days ago, which shut off the PC while it was running. Ever since then, I had no net connectivity at all -- regardless of which browser was launched. I knew the problem had to be with the PC itself, since I was able to connect to the internet using my laptop and the same router that the desktop PC uses. In fact, I had even switched the wires and the laptop worked fine on either one, including the one that had been connected to the PC, whereas the PC wouldn't work regardless of which cable was attaching it to the router.
I found my way to device manager and saw a little yellow exclamation mark on the "Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter #2." When I tried to check properties, there was a message with a "code 10" (this device cannot start). I eventually stumbled upon the URL below, where I followed the instructions posted by Zazula to remove the Microsoft TUN miniport adapter.
That all worked fine and I suspected that I needed to reinstall it, but, after rebooting, Microsoft TUN miniport adapter was no longer appearing on the list of Network adapters within device manager and none of the ones that were there seemed to have any problems. However, the machine was still "thinking" it had no connectivity. Running ipconfig from the command prompt yielded:
"Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
Media State........ media disconnected
Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address ............: fe80::5445:5245:444f%5
Default Gateway ............ : "
Rightclicking the connection while in Network Connections did not permit the "repair" option, so I eventually found my way to and tried the "ipconfig /renew" command, but all it did was give a message saying "No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection 2 while it has its media disconnected."
TCP/IP properties were set to obtain both the IP address and DNS server address automatically. I even tried running ipconfig from my laptop and inputting the values seen there into the TCP/IP properties on the PC instead of selecting the "do it automatically" box, but to no avail.
When I tried pinging the Linksys router at 192.168.15.1 from the PC, all four packets were lost and the message said "destination host unreachable." Pinging from the laptop, naturally, worked like a champ. By this time, the Microsoft tun miniport adapter had magically reappeared too, presumably when I tried to update my drivers and/or reinstall TCP/IP and all the rebooting along the way.
In any event, at this point, I was just about to give up, but I noticed that there was an "Intel Pro/100 VE Network Connection" also listed in my device manager, so I googled and found which described fairly well the situation I was experiencing. The icon in the system tray was indicating a network cable was unplugged, etc. The information from Intel recommended shutting down & removing the power cord, removing the pro/100 ve from the CNR slot, plugging the power cord back in for a bit, removing the power cord again, then reinstalling the pro/100 ve, reconnecting the power cord and then powering on again.
In any case, after opening up the case, I realized that I apparently had the adapter that was integrated into the motherboard, so I was not in a position to exactly follow the procedure and I became a bit worried. However, I went ahead and unplugged the modem card and at least one other card and reinserted them. After booting up again, lo and behold, I was able to connect to the internet again!!!!
I guess I lucked out a bit, but the point is, as I was searching the web for ways to deal with the various error messages I was seeing, I found a lot of stuff that was not on point at all, so I thought I'd post this narrative in case someone else might be in the same boat someday. Perhaps something I've posted will lead to a solution.
Good night, good luck and may God bless the United States of America!!!
For the record, I'm running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 and, though I have a fairly analytical mind, I'm not exactly a PC or networking expert.
It seems the electrical power went out a few days ago, which shut off the PC while it was running. Ever since then, I had no net connectivity at all -- regardless of which browser was launched. I knew the problem had to be with the PC itself, since I was able to connect to the internet using my laptop and the same router that the desktop PC uses. In fact, I had even switched the wires and the laptop worked fine on either one, including the one that had been connected to the PC, whereas the PC wouldn't work regardless of which cable was attaching it to the router.
I found my way to device manager and saw a little yellow exclamation mark on the "Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter #2." When I tried to check properties, there was a message with a "code 10" (this device cannot start). I eventually stumbled upon the URL below, where I followed the instructions posted by Zazula to remove the Microsoft TUN miniport adapter.
That all worked fine and I suspected that I needed to reinstall it, but, after rebooting, Microsoft TUN miniport adapter was no longer appearing on the list of Network adapters within device manager and none of the ones that were there seemed to have any problems. However, the machine was still "thinking" it had no connectivity. Running ipconfig from the command prompt yielded:
"Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
Media State........ media disconnected
Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address ............: fe80::5445:5245:444f%5
Default Gateway ............ : "
Rightclicking the connection while in Network Connections did not permit the "repair" option, so I eventually found my way to and tried the "ipconfig /renew" command, but all it did was give a message saying "No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection 2 while it has its media disconnected."
TCP/IP properties were set to obtain both the IP address and DNS server address automatically. I even tried running ipconfig from my laptop and inputting the values seen there into the TCP/IP properties on the PC instead of selecting the "do it automatically" box, but to no avail.
When I tried pinging the Linksys router at 192.168.15.1 from the PC, all four packets were lost and the message said "destination host unreachable." Pinging from the laptop, naturally, worked like a champ. By this time, the Microsoft tun miniport adapter had magically reappeared too, presumably when I tried to update my drivers and/or reinstall TCP/IP and all the rebooting along the way.
In any event, at this point, I was just about to give up, but I noticed that there was an "Intel Pro/100 VE Network Connection" also listed in my device manager, so I googled and found which described fairly well the situation I was experiencing. The icon in the system tray was indicating a network cable was unplugged, etc. The information from Intel recommended shutting down & removing the power cord, removing the pro/100 ve from the CNR slot, plugging the power cord back in for a bit, removing the power cord again, then reinstalling the pro/100 ve, reconnecting the power cord and then powering on again.
In any case, after opening up the case, I realized that I apparently had the adapter that was integrated into the motherboard, so I was not in a position to exactly follow the procedure and I became a bit worried. However, I went ahead and unplugged the modem card and at least one other card and reinserted them. After booting up again, lo and behold, I was able to connect to the internet again!!!!
I guess I lucked out a bit, but the point is, as I was searching the web for ways to deal with the various error messages I was seeing, I found a lot of stuff that was not on point at all, so I thought I'd post this narrative in case someone else might be in the same boat someday. Perhaps something I've posted will lead to a solution.
Good night, good luck and may God bless the United States of America!!!