Member Avatar for MiketheBook

My wife's laptop running Windows Vista suddenly can't connect to the internet through the LAN cable by which she is attached to our wireless router (she doesn't have wireless facility in her computer). I've tried several cables and know they are working, the router is working since I'm getting a wireless signal from it in another part of the house. What else could be the problem? Neither Firefox nor Explorer are working, nor any other applications that use the Internet. Help please. To put it mildly, internet connections are not among my areas of expertise!!

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 199 Views
  • 18 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by MiketheBook

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and practical checklist based on this thread: ’s problem was resolved by restarting the router, which strongly suggests a router-side hiccup (hung DHCP, NAT table, or a single bad port). That’s a common, simple fix — but if it happens again, use the checks below to isolate whether the router or the Vista laptop is at fault.

  1. Physical first: confirm the NIC link light on the laptop and the router port. Reseat the cable, try a different cable and a different router port, and try the same cable on another PC if possible.
  2. Check the IP state in Vista: Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Manage network connections > right‑click Local Area Connection > Status > Details. Or open a command prompt and run ipconfig /all. If the laptop shows 169.254.x.x it means DHCP failed; “Media disconnected” means no physical/link.
  3. Quick network commands (run elevated prompt for the netsh commands):
    ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ping <router-ip>
ping 8.8.8.8
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
  4. Next checks: look in Device Manager for driver errors and update/reinstall the NIC driver; temporarily disable firewall/antivirus to rule out blocking; check the router for DHCP, MAC-filtering, per-port power/save settings (good catch @teckforce), and router logs; try firmware updates.

A router reboot often “fixes” these by clearing stuck services and leases. If you must reboot frequently, update firmware or replace the router. For laptops without built‑in Wi‑Fi, keep a cheap USB Wi‑Fi adapter as a fallback.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for teckforce

What kind of router is it? On some routers theres an option to turn off LAN ports to save power...

Member Avatar for MiketheBook

Actually I solved the problem by rebooting the router. It was as simple as that!!

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.