limited or no connectivity

[twildd]

I am running win XP home ed (w/sp2) on a dell inspiron 5150 laptop. It is connected to a home network through a linksys router. about 5 days ago I got a popup on the bottom bar saying that the LAN connection had "limited or no connectivity".
after looking at the details it tried to do a repair and came up with the notice "unable to renew IP address"
I tried to a run IP release and IP renew from the run window and the computer says that it can't find the file.  I ran a diagonostic with the disk supplied by Dell and it found no problems. I also tried switching ports in the router, no luck. Is this a corrupt file? Bad hardware? Virus? How do I reload to be able to do a IP release/renew?
Any and all suggestions are most welcome.  
Thanks!
Tom

[Flame]

First off... How far away from the router are you? You might be too far away... Answer this question for me before we start-up with viruses and such...

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[twildd]

I am about  4 feet from the router, I can try to replace the cable, I suppose it's posible that I have a bad ethernet cable.
Tom

[Flame]

It IS possible.... Try it...

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[wrwss]

I have had alot of problems with linksys routers.Mine would keep losing the ip address.Try unplugging the wireless router.then your dsl modem or cable modem,then power on the wireless router while holding the reset button,then power on the cable or dsl modem.This should fix the problem until it loses it again.Time to upgrade to a different router(netgear or belkin)

[twildd]

 I have 2 other desktop computers that are using the same router(it's a hardwire router) with no problems. I swapped cables and got the same result on the laptop.
It still seems like the problem is pointing to the laptop and the IP address "stuck". is that the right term?
Tom

[wrwss]

Is this a wireless laptop or cat 45 cable to nic card?Under hardware device manager does it show your network cards? If so uninstall them and reinstall them and update the drivers.Also,are you using dynamic ip address or static(what type of internet service?)

[twildd]

I am using Cat 5 cable with a router to a Nic card that  is built in to the laptop. The settings that were working before are to have the system obtain a Ip address automatically. I am using a cable modem. I believe the device manager does show the card; I will try uninstalling the driver for the Nic card tommorow and then do a reinstall of the driver. Question:If the card is built into the Laptop can I do an "uninstall"? sorry for the rookie question...
Tom

[wrwss]

Well you dont actually uninstall it per say,just remove the nic from sight.you can disable it and then re-enable it if you prefer.The main thing is to update the drivers.If you do a uninstall and then do a scan for new hardware it will see it and install it along with the current drivers.One thing, while in device manager does it show that the nic is working properly?

[twildd]

here's the latest,
I uninstalled the broadcom 440x -10/100 controller and then had the find new hardware window re-install it. No change- same as before. I also found a broadcom advanced control suite that allowed me to test the device. It found no problems. I still am unable to see the IPconfig file or run the command Ip release and IP renew, I get the message that it can't find the file IP. to check the name and try again.
One other thing I noticed on the diagram from the staus bar that shows the network-there is the triangle with the ! point and there is also a lock symbol, is this indicating that something is set wrong or "locked"?
Tom

[gussery]

I have seen this problem after removing some spyware, highjacking software, etc. from PCs.  Even though the spyware removal tools remove the offending entries and programs they don't always fix the TCP/IP stack, etc.

Try this.  http://www.iup.edu/house/resnet/winfix.shtm

It fixes it most cases.

Let us know.

Gary

[twildd]

That did it!
Thanks so much. The problem had spread to another computer and Yes, I am having a problem with Spyware and Malware.
Does anyone out there know any tricks for keeping that stuff off the computer?

[Flame]

Download an antisoyware program... May I suggest Microsoft AntiSpyware?

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[Computer_Commando]

...Does anyone out there know any tricks for keeping that stuff off the computer?

Read and follow this:  http://www.winxpcentral.com/basics/secure1.php