Okay, I do not understand. My computer is connected to net via university network, which uses dhcp without a domain. I have win2000 and SMC network adapter. It worked fine, until one day it just didn't receive more than 2-4 packets / hour. My firewall (ZoneAlarm) showed that e.g ICQ sent packages, but nothing was received. Ping to DHCP or gateway was timed out, but loopback works fine. I changed the network cable - no help. I re-installed Windows after formatting C (in case of spyware) - no help. But now for some reason it receives more packages and programs like Jbuilder does access the net for debugging, rundll32 can access the net and some small components like that. But still pinging gateway or DHCP doesn't work, ICQ can't connect and I can't use the net. Firewall doesn't block anything but incoming requests, but even if I start and use the computer without the firewall, my net connection still doesn't work! Why of why is can JbuilderX do this but I can't? I just don't get it.

Not sure why you jumped ahead and reformatted your drive....but anyways. go to your shell (cmd.exe) and run 'ipconfig /all'. Do you have a IP? Is it a 169.254.x.x? If so your not getting an IP. Usually you reboot. How does your SMC wireless card (I'm presuming) normally find the network? Have you tried to remove zonealarm and try it? Sometimes zonealarm crashes your TCP/IP stack, and nothing works. Have you tried to remove and reinstall your TCP/IP stack (In LAN properties, TCP/IP and remove the check mark, ok, then go back and put the checkmark back and ok)? HTH, J.

I do have IP and it looks okay, no 169.254.*.*. SMC isn't wireless, and I connect through LAN so it asks for IP from DHCP, and gets it, but I still can't ping the dhcp nor the gateway. All properties should be correctly. I now uninstalled ZA, removed and added TCP/IP and hope for the best...

... No. Not working.