Wired AND wireless networking not working. Baffled.

[autopilot]

My mother called me over for the usual tech support, telling me that she can connect to her wifi. I thought it would be something trival, but im lost with this one - neither wireless OR wired works.

On the wireless side, it's just saying there are no networls available. Yet i know 100% there is (i connected my iPhone and other Laptop fine). On the Wired side of things, when i plug the ethernet cable in windows is just reporting the 'network cable is unplugged'. Tried two cables.

Running Win7 and the router is one of teh new BT homehubs, which i have tried reseting. No software etc, as far as i know, has been installed and nothing else changed. No other error messages and drivers apear fine.

I have made the assumption the router is ok, as other devices connect fine with both cable and wifi.

At first i thought the WiFi chip or even the hardware swith was faulty, but with ethernet out too it must be something OS related - the wireless and wired chipset are usually seperate, right?

Where do i start?

[killie99]

most probably a virus.

[razer121]

Have you tryed reinstalling the Network card? I've had this same problem and that sorted it out. Also a scan for virus's might be a good idea aswell.

[autopilot]

Yes, tried that.

[Splash]

Download A N Other linux livecd. Test with that.


Other than that - system restore?

[peterb]

most probably a virus.

Unlikely - viruses (or virii!) propagate over networks, so it would be counter-productive for a virus to deliberately disabole networking.

So it come s down to a hardware fault or software corruption. You could try uninstalling all networking from the windows PC and then re-installing it. That has fixed problems for me in the past (although I have never had to doi that on a win7 machine)

If you go to the command line and type in ipconfig - what output do you get?

[Splash]

most probably a virus.

Unlikely. Viruses these days are pretty much always targetted at making money, and if a PC can't get a network connection then it can't send spam or be used in a DDoS.


EDIT - beaten to the punch by Peterb!

[killie99]

I've seen virus's diasable networking before, I think it would be wise to use a linux live cd or the avira boot cd to scan - at least then it can be discounted if nothing is found.
What status do the 2 network devices show from control panel? Do any of the wired network leds come on when you plug in a cable?

[oldboy47]

Certainly check with IPConfig. Do the network elements show in the OS control panel?

[oolon]

What firewall was she using? Zone alarm if it gets messed with has a habit of shutting off all network access. No reason others might not as well.

[Behemoth]

Had an issue like this last week with a Dynamode router. It took me hours to work it out but it was because someone (I think my friends son) had been in the router config and had ticked the box for hidden SSID.

However if it was the case here, the ethernet would still work.

[MaddAussie]

Might be the tcp/ip stack needs resetting

[Funkstar]

Roll back the ethernet drivers?

I've had issues with the Realtek drivers pushed down by Windows Update in the past. Just a thought.

[autopilot]

Thank for the suggestions. I did a ipconfig /all and every thing looks fine and dandy. All working elements appear present and correct. The only firewall is the Windows one.

Roll back the ethernet drivers?

I've had issues with the Realtek drivers pushed down by Windows Update in the past. Just a thought.

Hmm, that's a thought. The only thing that changed on her system was a windows update. What's the best way to roll back? Also, she did a system restore to a date before the problems started. I have not not a system restore for years (never on win7), does that preserve the current drivers or load the old old ones?

EDIT: Ethernet and wifi are separate hardware (even different vendor) with different drivers so i cant see how they could both be effected.

[Funkstar]

Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> [the right adapter] -> Properties -> Driver -> Roll back driver

Only applies if there have been subsequent drivers installed. I can't do it on here as it is running the stock W7 drivers for my NIC, I don't trust an update, and quite frankly have no need to update the basic drivers

[autopilot]

No driver available to roll back too.

Anyhow, Ethernet and wifi are separate hardware (even different vendor) with different drivers so i cant see how they could both be effected.