I just installed service pack 3 for XP home edition. Right before I did it, my internet connection was working fine. Immediately after the instal, I lost my connection. Doing a system network scan, it says the DHCP server is not assigning my computer an IP address. This is a desktop computer, connected via cable to my Linksys WRT54GS router. I have cable broadband internet. I know the router and internet connection are still working since I have a laptop and several mobile divices that are actively using it. After rebooting the computer, router and modem several times, I called Microsoft help. They walked me through a few simple things, then had me uninstall SP3. Still no success. They told me to contact my ISP. The hardware appears to be working-- the green LED lights up when the network cable is plugged in and the network icon in the system tray responds when the cable is plugged/ unplugged. It says "limited or no connectivity". Any ideas as to what I should try next? Thanks!

First look at the device manager to see if the NIC drivers were damaged. Then try a static IP. Post ipconfig /all results if you still have a problem.

Checked the device manager and it says the card is working properly. I then tried to create a static IP. Once I set it up, windows indicated that the network connection had full connectivity, but I could not pull up a web page in the browser. (To set up the static ip, I copied the subnet mask, default gateway and DNS servers addresses from my other computer which can connect. I gave it a different IP address, of course). One thing I noticed... both the router and my other computer have the subnet mask set as 255.255.255.0, while my problem computer, when DHCP is enabled, has a subnet mask as 255.255.0.0. Shouldn't that be the same number? Can I change that? IP config info for the problem computer: Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP_01 Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-A6-24-57-B5 Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.102.56 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : Any other ideas to try? Thanks for your help! GERB

That ipconfig doesn't show a static IP and yes, the subnet mask should be the same as the other PC. Set everything manually including the default gateway, which is the IP of the router.

I tried that. When I set everything manually, my "network connection" goes from "limited to no connectivity" to "connected", but I still cant access the internet or see other shared drives. When the router is set up through DHCP to assign IP and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, then why does my computer have a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0? Is that a defaul windows thing? Does that mean I'm not communicating at all with the router? I also tried bypassing the router and just connecting to the cable modem with the network cable directly. It just says that my network cable is unplugged. wierd. Are some modems only set up to work with routers only?

169.254.102.56 When you see that address, there is no communication with the router. "Autoconfiguration" IP Addresses: 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255 Addresses in the range 169.254.0.0 to 169.254.255.255 are used automatically by some PCs and Macs when they are configured to use IP, do not have a static IP Address assigned, and are unable to obtain an IP address using DHCP. _____________________________ That's why I suggested the static IP. If you connected the PC directly to the modem without the static IP and still didn't get a connection, then the problem is your NIC.

Took the network cable from the problem desktop and connected my laptop to the internet successfully. I don't think the problem is the router. So I'm focusing on the NIC (Intell PRO/100 VE). I downloaded the latest drivers and installed them... still no connection. The device manager says its working. Ran various hardware and software diagnostics on it... it passes everything. If I knew it was bad, I would go spend $40 for a new one and that would be it. But how can I know for sure it is that NIC?