This took 3 separate visits to solve. My mum has a newish Dell running XP. It is on a wired network with a Compaq running Win 98 and both are managed by a Netgear GD 834G router.
Apparently the internet connection was lost after a big storm with a large amount of lightning. I found that the Compaq could log on to the router and its internet connection was unaffected. The Dell could not log on to the router via the web interface or on to the internet. I checked out the diagnostics of the integrated Intel Pro network card. All seemed OK. I managed to get some utility software onto the Dell. A Hijack This log seemed OK. Adaware found a couple of ad gateways and i did a bit of registry editing to get rid of any remnants. Still no joy on the connectivity front. Sent of a support email to Netgear. Performed a full virus scan. Found I could ping the router and a website but slowly and with up to 50% packet loss. I found a Microsoft patch to update XP with but still no joy.
Eventually I left the machine with an ad hoc single connection via an ADSL frog modem and retired to think about things.
Netgear advised by email that updating router firmware might help so I installed a beta upgrade with some trepidation. Still nothing happening with the XP machine. Changed the network cable for the second time - nothing. Reset winsock. No effect.
Then in desperation I got onto my friend Andy by phone. He scrathed his head a bit and suggested I change the network card due to the Ping results.
Presto! Everything springs back to life. Both machines can access the router and the internet. The lightning must have done for the integrated netork card. Andy is a star.
