Desktop suddenly has no network access

[whathim]

I have a desktop (Win 7 Pro) and a laptop (XP Home) on my Ethernet as well as a NAS.  All connections are wired cat5e – no wireless.  This was working fine – file sharing and everything was ok.  Then this morning I booted the desktop and have no network access from that machine and no Internet access.  The system tray icon says, “Unidentified network, No Internet access”.  Running MS Edge confirmed I have no Internet access from the desktop machine.

When I try to open Windows Explorer from my desktop onto my laptop I get, “Network Error, Windows cannot access \\LAPTOP1”.  Details: “Error code 0x80070035, The network path was not found.”.  When I click “Diagnose” I get, “Troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem”

When I try to open Windows Explorer from my desktop onto my NAS I get, “Restoring Network Connections, An error occurred while reconnecting X: to \\DS116\Collection”.  Microsoft Windows Network: The network path was not found.  This connection has not been restored.”.

I’ve tried rebooting a couple of times but without resolving issue.

From my laptop I do have Internet access, however.  Also I can see my NAS but cannot see the desktop.  Can anyone advise what to do, please?

[strollin]

It's possible the Ethernet port on your computer died.  You can buy a USB/Ethernet adapter like this: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Foldable-Gigabit-Ethernet-Compatible/dp/B00YUU3KC6/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=USB+ethernet+adapter&qid=1618406550&sr=8-3 or you could install an internal Ethernet card like this: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-1000Mbps-Gigabit-Ethernet-supported/dp/B003CFATNI/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=internal+ethernet+card&qid=1618406666&sr=8-3.

However, before buying anything, I would try rebooting your router to see if that might make a difference.

[whathim]

Many thanks for your reply.  I have just rebooted the router but it has made no difference.  This is not good.

[Allan]

Do you have WiFi capability? If so, have you tried to see if your desktop can get online with wifi? If you can, it may very well be what strollin suggested.

[whathim]

My router has WiFi capability (currently off) but I don’t think my computers do.  Certainly I’ve never used it even if they would.  I went into Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections but I cannot see anything that suggests WiFi support.

I did a “ping 127.0.0.1” from both the desktop and the laptop and got identical results.

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Doesn’t this confirm that the desktop’s local network adapter is working?  Sorry, I’m not very familiar with this kind of stuff and would appreciate comment from those more knowledgeable.

[Lisa_maree]

The network socket on the back of the computer normally has 2 lights one amber/green  which slows the connection speed
Right LED  Green Link/Activity indicator: Blinking – There is activity on this port. Off – No link is established.
if the right LED is off then there is no connection or bad connection to the router. Check also on the router that the led corresponding to the ethernet port has a connect led.

If the above checks out then check in windows device manager, ethernet port and right click and select properties. It should say this device is working correctly if not then post the error please.

If that checks out then on both the laptop and desktop search for cmd right click on the cmd and select run as administrator

Type at the dos screen ipconfig the numbers should be the same except the last number in the IP address likely something like 10.1.1.12 or 192.168. etc if you get back 127.0.0.1 then this is an internal ip address and not valid.


A software program which may help https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/netadapter-repair-all-in-one/

[whathim]

Thanks very much for the information.  I will check the things you describe tomorrow and report back but now, it’s goodnight.

[whathim]

Apologies for the delay in reporting back.

Thanks for the link to the software program.  I’d seen adverts for other network repair software but had been very wary of downloading.  In any case, I would not be able to download directly onto my desktop, of course.

I did check the router (an ISP supplied Huawei DG8041W) but it doesn’t appear to have LEDs for the Ethernet ports.  All it has is a single light on the front for overall status, disconnected/connecting/connected.  Not to worry, I currently have both my desktop and laptop connected to ports on the back of the same network switch, a Netgear GS208.  This is showing healthy green intermittent blinking LED for all ports in use.

Both LED for the network port on the back of the desktop appear to be functioning though they are rather dim (they are nice and bright on my laptop).  One of them is reddish-amber on continuously and the other is amber blinking intermittently though it is more off than on.  While there, I unplugged and re-plugged, I changed the Ethernet cable, and I connected the cable to a different port on the network switch – all made no difference.

In Device Manager under “Network adapters” there is listed “Broadcom Netlink ™ Gigabit Ethernet”.  The Properties for this say, “This device is working properly”.  I must say, there is also listed the following items.

NordLynx Tunnel
NordLynx Tunnel
TAP-NordVPN Windows Adapter V9

The Properties for the first of these additional items says, “This device is not working because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)”.  Properties for the second Tunnel and the TAP both say, “This device is working properly”.

I recall that when this problem started NordVPN, which I have only on the desktop, prompted me to log into my account, but that failed.  Shortly after, I discovered I had no Internet and assumed that was why login failed.  Since I only connect via NordVPN manually, and of course haven’t since then, I assumed the problem had nothing to do with NordVPN.  But, could it?

The output from ipconfig from the laptop was as follows.

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Network Connect Adapter:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.16
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

The output from ipconfig from the desktop was as follows.

Windows IP Configuration

Unknown adapter NordLynx 4:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Connection-specific DNS Suffix:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.86.119
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Tunnel adapter isatap.{[GUID]}

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Connection-specific DNS Suffix:

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Connection-specific DNS Suffix:

Tunnel adapter isatap.{[GUID]}

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Connection-specific DNS Suffix:

According to this reference (https://kb.iu.edu/d/aoyj), the IP address of 169.254.86.119 indicates that my desktop cannot see the network.

[Lisa_maree]

I would suspect the not logging into Nord is the problem. Can you un install Nord and try accessing the network you can always re install if it doesn't fix it.
Hardware wise everything checks out.
Thanks for the detailed post.

[whathim]

Thanks very much for coming back to me and for the suggestion to uninstall Nord.  I think I might first raise this problem on the Nord forum.  I’ve raised an unrelated issue there before and they seemed reasonably responsive and helpful.  In any case, if it turns out to be Nord related they should get to know about it.  Of course, I will report back to this forum when, hopefully, there is a resolution.

Many thanks for your help.

[whathim]

Update:

After uninstalling NordVPN from my desktop computer, I now have Internet access from that machine but LAN access has only partially restored.  The situation is now that from the desktop machine I can see shares on my Laptop but only if I reference by IP address, not by name.  Likewise from my Laptop I can see shares on the Desktop by IP address but not by name.  I can access my NAS by name from the laptop but only by IP address from the desktop computer.

But, I’ve noticed something.  When I run “ipconfig /all” on my desktop computer, under “Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:” I get, “DHCP Enabled  : No”.  On my laptop I get “DHCP Enabled  : Yes”.

I tried following the instructions given by Computer Hope (https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001048.htm) to enable DHCP:  Goto Network and Sharing Centre > Local Area Connection.  On the Local Area Connection Status dialog, click Properties.  Highlight “Internet Protocol Version 4” and click Properties.  However, this fails with the message, “In order to configure TCP/IP, you must install and enable a network adapter card.”.  Doing the same on the laptop does not give the message.

Could this be the source of the troubles I’m experiencing?  What should I do – uninstall and reinstall the adapter card perhaps?  Need a confidence boost.