Constant incrementing NIC and Network numbers

Hi!
Please help me! Does anyone know how to reset these constantly incrementing NIC and Network settings/numbers in my Windows XP? ( I now have NIC#3 and local network#6 ). There are different ways these increase, e.g. changed NICs, hard resets or upgrades. Now, although I have a cablemodem and am constantly on-line, the computer doesn't sense the network automatically. I have to retry for it to connect. It even believes that I still have the old NIC in place and won't let me enter the IP address without complaining that it is being used by another NIC - although it's the same NIC! I am not sure if this is a function for some purpose, or just a bug.

Thanking you in advance,
MacDknife

 

Moved to networking as requested, and this post will get you back to the top.........

 

Can you remove all the networking components, reboot and let Windows rediscover them? That's how I usually fix this sort of problem.

 

If I understand you correctly, the NIC#3 and local network#6 can be renamed like any other file. As for Windows not auto-detecting the network, I can only come up with going into Folder Options, clicking the View tab, and checking Automatically search for network folders and printers though I doubt that will make a difference it is worth a try.