Windows 7 Internet "Connecting..." Forever

[kidjenius]

Hi there

Ever since I installed VirtualBox on my windows 7, I have been having some connectivity issues with my internet. Like I said on the title, my internet is taking forever to connect. I have even tried leaving it for half an hour and it would still be "connecting" when I return. However, this does not always happen. Most of the time when this occurs, I restart my computer and then I am able to connect normally and browse.

I use Mozilla Firefox, but I have tried to connect with IE8 as well and both suffer the same problem. I have tried to narrow down to the cause of the problem by using several different browsers, using other programs that connect to the internet (Windows Live Messenger, online games), but both to no avail. The only thing I could think of that could be the problem is when I installed (and now recently uninstalled) VirtualBox. Could it have damaged my network connections?

It's interesting to note that when I look at Network sharing centre, it shows that I am connected to the Internet. If I tried to troubleshoot the connection, it says that it cannot detect any issues.

Any ideas what the problem is and what I could do to solve it?

 

[patcooke]

Is this a wired or wireless connection? If wireless check the signal strength.

 

[kidjenius]

It's a wired connection

 

[patcooke]

Installing and removing Virtualbox may have affected some system files. It's worth running a system file check:

Run a command promt as administrator and enter the following command into the command screen:

sfc /scannow

 

[kidjenius]

Installing and removing Virtualbox may have affected some system files. It's worth running a system file check:

Run a command promt as administrator and enter the following command into the command screen:

sfc /scannow

scanning now. it's 55% verification.

I've recently noticed that whenever I try to play this certain online game that requires the use of pando media booster, it says that pando media booster is unable to connect to the game's servers and that it might be a problem with my firewall.
What's interesting is that every time I do this, if i were to use the internet again say to go on google or facebook, the "connecting..." problem comes back. This happens even though the internet was working perfectly fine before i tried to start the game.

EDIT: it has just finished scanning and did not find any problems.