Windows 7 'unidentified network'...

benbmyers

New Member
Hi,
Right... I moved into a hostel that provides 'freewire' in the bedrooms which in a leaflet you receive on arrival says "just plug the Ethernet cable into your laptop and once you're sent to the freewire website create a new user and password to get online!" After moving into my shared room I put an Ethernet cable into the router and connected to my pc, which then gave me the very annoying 'unidentified network'.

This problem occured last Tuesday. After a week of looking on the Internet, phoning the 'freewire' help line, and spending ÂŁ70 in PC world on them basically replacing my hard drive and doing a wipe of my laptop, still no solutions have been found.

I really have no idea what else to do or who else to ask. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Currently I've tried:

8Disabling and enabling my 'Local area connection'
Turning off firewalls
Using different browsers

I did at one point have a weird conversation with the freewire helpline. After going through some steps with one of the call centre helpers I was told to read out my physical address, which reads as '00-00-00-00-00-00'.

The person on the other end of the line was honest and said this address meant it was a problem with my computer, not the network (I.e its not his problem). Hence why I went to the computer shop pc world for a very expensive computer make over.

I'm sorry if this thread seems like one very mixed rant, however it is 1:47am and I am having to write the entire thing from my iPhone using a 3G connection.


Once again any help would be appreciated

Thanks
-Ben
 
Seems like you've added a router to the equation.
"Just plug the Ethernet cable into your laptop"
"I put an Ehternet cable into the router and connect to my pc"
Is this configuration supported on the network.
Who's router and is it connected / uplinked using a WAN port of a LAN/Switch Port.
What IP addressing information do you get when you type
ipconfig /all
from a command prompt?
 
Sorry, the router is connected via the connection in the wall and my laptop is connected tk the router via Ethernet cable.

Errr sorry I'm not the best at this, but the only IP information I can find is:

Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)
physical address: 00-00-00-00-00-00
DHCP Enabled: yes
Auto configuration enabled: yes
Autoconfiguration IPv4 address: 169.254.177.106(Preferred)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
 
Which port on the back of the router is the the cable going into the wall connected to?
 
Yep tried removing the router from the equation but the exact same effect came into play. I should have mentioned in my OP that I'm in a shared bedroom and the other person staying here has perfect connection to the Internet. To achieve this he simply plugged the Ethernet cable (coming from the router) into his laptop and he was good to go.
 
Thanks for the added info.
You are not getting any IP addressing information from whatever is handing out DHCP on that particular network, which can be caused by a couple different issues. First we should probably asked, have you ever used the ethernet connection on your computer before and did it work OK?
Often a device driver for your network adapter is not optimal and to resolve this you will need to either obtain the latest drivers from you computer manufacturer's website, or from the actual adapter manufacturer's website. If you have some specifics to provide we may be able to help with that.
Additionally an over zealous third party software product can result in problematic network connections. ZoneAlarm or Comodo firewall products, or any number of third party antivirus products that may have a built in firewall like applet. Without knowing what type of additional software you may have installed I can only suggest that you inspect any such software for proper settings and configuration or remove it totally from the system temporarily until you can get your issues sorted out. Consider replacing any such software with Link Removed due to 404 Error and the built in windows firewall product for the time being.
Lastly you can try setting the IP addressing information manually with static values containing the proper settings for the network using you roommate's machine as a guide. Perform the same ipconfig /all on his machine from a command prompt and note (write down) the information. You can safely duplicate every setting except the actual IP address, so if you see something like the following
IP Adress: 192.168.1.222 make yours one off and unique like 192.168.1.223
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 yours needs to be the same
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 yours needs to be the same
DNS Server(s): 192.168.1.1 yours needs to be the same
Here's how;
Type
ncpa.cpl
into the search box after clicking the start orb
select then right click your wired adapter and choose properties
uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6
select (highlight) Internet Protocol Version 4 and click the properties button
change the radio buttons to "Use the following" and insert the information you've obtained by using your roommate's information as a template.
OK your way back out of there and see if that helps.
 
Last edited:
I would think that uninstalling the network adapter in device manager, then rebooting would cause Windows to reinstall the adapter. Then going to the adapter manufacturer's site or perhaps the PC manufacturer's site would provide an updated driver if necessary. As Trouble states, your PC is not assigning an IP address at all

Try right clicking the internet icon in your Taskbar and choose TroubleShoot Problems and/or Open Network and Sharing Center and run the Troubleshooters listed there:

TroubleShootInternet.jpg
 
I've tried updating the drivers through Details > Update Drivers, but my computer keeps telling me that the software is up to date.

As for troubleshooting the problems, I have tried numerous times but always results in Windows asking me to look for solutions online (d'oh).

At the moment I'm using the hostels wifi in the basement of the complex, so I am atleast able to reply on this now rather than use my iPhone again, haha.

My flat mate is currently unavailable but when he returns I will go through the steps mentioned in your post, Trouble. Thank you very much for your help so far, guys!
 
Did you actually try to delete the adapter in Device Manager or just check for an Update? Windows may think it has the latest driver installed based on version number, but it appears the driver is corrupt. Deleting it then rebooting forces Windows to reload the driver it thinks is best from it's driver database.
 
I did at one point have a weird conversation with the freewire helpline. After going through some steps with one of the call centre helpers I was told to read out my physical address, which reads as '00-00-00-00-00-00'.
Open a command prompt and type
ipconfig /all
Examine the information relative to the problem network adapter
Write down the hex value of the information that says
Physical Address........00-50-56-C0-00-08 (should look something like that, but yours will be unique)
remove the dashes / hyphens (-)
That should leave you with a twelve digit hex value
Plug it in here
Type
ncpa.cpl
into the search box and hit enter
Select then right click the problem adapter and choose properties
Click the Configure button near the top right
Select the Advanced tab
In the left column (Property: )
select Network Address
Change the radio button from Not Present, to the other one that will allow you to enter information into the associated text box (Right column "Value:")
Type or copy and paste the 12 digit hex value that you created above (no dashes)
See if that helps
Regards
Randy
 
Open a command prompt and type
ipconfig /all
Examine the information relative to the problem network adapter
Write down the hex value of the information that says
Physical Address........00-50-56-C0-00-08 (should look something like that, but yours will be unique)
remove the dashes / hyphens (-)
That should leave you with a twelve digit hex value
Plug it in here
Type
ncpa.cpl
into the search box and hit enter
Select then right click the problem adapter and choose properties
Click the Configure button near the top right
Select the Advanced tab
In the left column (Property: )
select Network Address
Change the radio button from Not Present, to the other one that will allow you to enter information into the associated text box (Right column "Value:")
Type or copy and paste the 12 digit hex value that you created above (no dashes)
See if that helps
Regards
Randy


This has worked! Thank you very much for all your help, I am in your debt!
 
Good to hear. Thanks for posting back and updating your thread with the followup information.
Hope to continue to see you around the forums.
Regards
Randy
 
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