my cable internet works, but there is no icon for it in my system tray. when i go to the network connections folder, it is completely empty. i refresh and it says something of windows not being able to retrieve the network connections list and network connections service might not be enabled. i have the service enabled and i checked the microsoft website and found a few things with registry to fix the problem, but nothing works. i dont have sp1 and i never do system restore (u'll understand why i said that if you have ever had this problem and were trying to look for solutions to it). ok if this sounds familiar to anyone, please reply and ill be more informative. thank you.

No I am sorry that I do not understand as to why you have NO updates for your system if your internet works at all. How big of a network are you trying to repair to? Since you have no updates I think that the best thing for you is to get all the protection that you can get and run them before doing anything else. www.majorgeeks.com under spyware, download; spybot S&D, spywareblaster, and hijack this and update them and run them. Then go to M$ updates and get your updates before even trying to worry about what your network stuff is about. The odds are that the updates will restore your networking files as there are some of those updates in there. IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

I am experiencing this same problem and have so far found no solution. I am running Windows XP Home Edition with all of the service packs and updates on a Compaq Presario 2100. I have just used the factory restore disk on it before I applied the windows updates. I don't know if the network connections were there before because I didn't miss them until now when I needed them to set up wireless. I am considering starting over again with another factory restore and checking to see at what point during the process I am losing them. That is, unless someone has a better suggestion.