Can't access the internet

I'm working on a friend's computer (running Win XP Home ed.), but haven't been able to figure out the problem. All of a sudden, one day, she couldn't access the internet/e-mail. Basically, there is no internet connection. It's not like she installed it and can't get it to work. It's worked fine for over a year, and now, nothing. As far as I know, she made no changes or anything to her computer.

She's got Verizon DSL. All of the lights on the DSL modem are lit and steady, so I don't think it's the ISP. I shut down the computer and restarted it. No luck. I tried disabling and re-enabling the Local Area Connection. No luck. I tried powering down the DSL modem and starting it back up. No luck. I replaced the network cable from the modem to the computer. No luck. I was going to replace the NIC, but I don't think that's it either. The computer detects when the network cable is unplugged, so the NIC seems to be working. There are 2 lights on the NIC. One says "Link" and the other says "100 ". When network cable is plugged in, the "Link" light is lit. The "100" light is not lit.

If I go to Status of the Local Area Connection, it says Status: Connected. But, under Activity, the packets sent continually increases, but the packets received is at 0. So something is wrong there. I went to a command prompt and tried to ping someone and got no response.

I'm not that experienced with computers, so I'm really running out of ideas here.

Any idea as to what might have caused this? Any remedy? Help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!

 

There could be two different things that could be wrong.

Have a look here: You cannot create a network connection after you restore Windows XP
if she can't reinstall SP1 then the workaround in the registry will work.

If there are socks errors look in Event Viewer, check here: http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm.

Lots of times when you remove spyware it will take your winsock layers with it. There are more links at the bottom of that page.
I realize she said nothing happened but sometimes it is the stuff that you are using to repair XP that mess things up.

 

If the cable is unplugged and the link light is still lit then the card is bad, once the cable is removed all lights on the nic should go out. replace the card and see.

 

just because the lights on the modem are lit doesnt necessarily mean the modem is working or there is a good signal on the other side of it. if you find no other problem, do call the isp and have them check the line out to the modem.

they may even have some diagnostics to test the modem they can run.

good luck.

 

That's the key information for me. It could be a network card problem, but I think it is more likely to be the DSL box.

Even if the DSL was unable to connect to the internet it should be replying to some of the outgoing packets, if only with a failure notification.

Can you try the DSL box on another PC? When you say you powered down the DSL unit, did you unplug it from the power supply. That would be worth a try if you haven't already. Another thing I would suggest is checking the manual for a "Factory Reset" option. That will effectively clear the DSL box settings and give its firmware a good kick. Of course you will have to reconfigure the DSL box after it has been reset, so make a not of the settings first.