[manomina]

I was able to connect to the internet via wireless, then I did a virus scan and cleaned off a couple infected files. The next day I noticed a no longer had my wireless adapter in my Network Connections.

I went back to the website and downloaded the adapter/software and tried to reinstall it but it won't reinstall. I am connected via CAT5 right now.

Any idea why or what the problem might be?

[fairnooks]

Try system restore to a date previous to the missing adapter problem then rescan for virus files again and pay very close attention as to what is being removed. Often a virus will be "dug" in and upon removal it breaks things. It could also be a coincidence as well and the adapter just failed.

[manomina]

Thanks, I guess I should have mentioned this...but I tried to restore to the day before and it failed, so I tried to incrementally go back and they all failed. My laptop is pretty new so I'm hoping things aren't failing on it yet.

[JohnWill]

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type devmgmt.msc

Please respond to all the following steps.

1. Under Network adapters, please tell me all the devices listed.
2. Are there any devices under Network adapters that have a red x displayed?
3. Also, are there any devices anywhere in the Device Manager display with yellow ? or ! displayed?

Let's see this as well.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[manomina]

Under Network Adapters I have:

1394 Net Adapter
Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\robandrosi>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DarkRunner
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-4B-82-AA-09
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
68.87.76.178
68.87.78.130
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, May 04, 2008 4:20:09 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 18, 2038 8:14:07 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\robandrosi>

[manomina]

JohnWill this is a different problem but I just wanted to ask. On my other laptop when I went into the properties of my wireless adapter, and went into the wireless tab and under the preferred networks I had mine listed but I also had one listed that I had never seen before. Does that mean someone else hacked my system and created their own logon? I am using WPA so I wasn't expecting that. I was just wondering if that is what happened to that.

[JohnWill]

Actually, you have a more basic issue. Your wireless hardware is not recognized at all by Windows. It doesn't appear in Device Manager or the IPCONFIG.

On the second part of my Device Manager question, where there ANY devices in error in Other Devices or anywhere else in Device Manager?

[manomina]

Thank you! In my Other Devices it had my Bluetooth wireless. I reinstalled and it's there. Thank you again!

How do you mark posts as being solved?

[JohnWill]

You don't until the board software is fixed, that's one of the things that got lost in the upgrade. I'll mark it for you.

[fairnooks]

Those are all internal local I.P. numbers--everyone with a home network has the same or very similar numbers so its nothing to worry about.

[manomina]

Really? I just thought if someone knew your ip then they can mess you up? Is that not true?

[fairnooks]

Only if someone knew your I.P. number assigned to you at any one moment (unless its static) by your ISP, AND you didn't change the default router name and password AND the router was configured to allow access from the WAN side could someone get in and mess you up.

All ip addresses that start with 192 are not viable WAN-side (Internet side) addresses. All they do is allow you to run several ip addressable devices locally without the need to have more than one ISP ip connection.

Like I said before, almost everyone with a home network has 192.168.#.# numbers. My gateway is 192.168.0.1, there are literally millions of other gateways with the exact same number I'm sure, it means nothing except to the other computers on my local network.

[manomina]

Thanks fairnooks.