Usually I'd sit around and play with my desktop to try and figure out what's wrong with it.Or use my laptop (which I'm on now) to try and troubleshoot the problem, however I don't understand networking stuff too well, so here's the situation.

 

My desktop is connected to the internet via an ethernet cable. When I check my network connections, it shows that my computer is connected to my router, but the break seems to be between the router and the internet. Weirdly enough, I disabled WILAN, and plugged the ethernet cable into my laptop, so I know that the cable is still good, and I know the wireless connection is working, but I can't figure out why my desktop can't connect.

 

It was working fine the other day, but my mom used it the other day, and since then it hasn't been working. I know that she won't know anything about what she did (if anything) and I don't even think she used the internet the other day.

 

Anyway, if anyone knows about this, let me know, thank you!

Not sure if you have a cable modem or dsl, will assume Windows OS.

 

You might try powering off cable modem and router wait 30 seconds power them up then reboot the PC.

 

There may be a link light where the ethernet cable plugs into you PC - should be flashing.

(If not the interface may have become disabled in the OS.)

 

If you still cannot connect bring up a DOS prompt (CMD) and enter ipconfig, enter that on your laptop too. Subnet mask and gateway should be the same, IPv4 should have the same first three octets.

 

If the ipconfig looks good try and enter ping yahoo.com at the cnd prompt. Should look like this:

C:\Windows\System32>ping yahoo.com

 

Pinging yahoo.com [209.191.122.70] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.191.122.70: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=55

Reply from 209.191.122.70: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=55

 

Other things to check are any firewall programs (Windows Firewall, Symantec, etc). They could interfere with network.

 

Do you have an up to date AntiVirus program?

My desktop does this everyday at least once. I think it is a government conspiracy keeping me connected. I gave up and just reboot.

you can try this, in a command prompt type in netsh winsock reset

 

netsh winsock reset is useful command that you can use in Microsoft Windows to reset winsock catalog back to default setting or clean state. You can try this if you are having following Internet access or networking problems but still failing to resolve the problem after trying all other suggestions.

Not sure if you have a cable modem or dsl, will assume Windows OS. You might try powering off cable modem and router wait 30 seconds power them up then reboot the PC. There may be a link light where the ethernet cable plugs into you PC - should be flashing. (If not the interface may have become disabled in the OS.) If you still cannot connect bring up a DOS prompt (CMD) and enter ipconfig, enter that on your laptop too. Subnet mask and gateway should be the same, IPv4 should have the same first three octets. If the ipconfig looks good try and enter ping yahoo.com at the cnd prompt. Should look like this: C:\Windows\System32>ping yahoo.com Pinging yahoo.com [209.191.122.70] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 209.191.122.70: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=55 Reply from 209.191.122.70: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=55 Other things to check are any firewall programs (Windows Firewall, Symantec, etc). They could interfere with network. Do you have an up to date AntiVirus program?

 

It's weird, my default gateway and subnet mask don't match, but the gate way is only one number off from my IPv4 Address, so I'm not too sure what that means.

 

When I pinged yahoo, it sent data for a few seconds, and then said the request timed out.

 

I do have an anti-virus, maybe I'll run that in case that's the issue. I don't think my firewall is causing this, but that could very well be.

We get this every now and then.

 

Verizon in home agent usually fixes it by clearing the old connection and making a new one.

 

I can do it manually as well a dnsflush and another command that I can't recall.

 

It can be exceedingly frustrating how these things run flawlessly for months and then all of a sudden act up with seemingly no reason.

You also also try to disable your virus scanner to see if its blocking it.