internet connection problem

[Sweed]

The last two mornings when I woke up my computer I had an icon telling me my network connection was bad. Clicked on "repair" and got a message saying windows couldn't get an IP and to contact my ISP.

Yesterday..
Did the unplug the modem and router wait 30 seconds to reset things, and even restarted the computer and still the same problem. Called mediacom and there were no outages in my area and talked to tech support. Went to my daughter's room and tried her computer and it connected, no problem there. They had me unplug the router,wait and plug it back in and said they could see the router and modem working so it could be something with the cat cable. Plugged in an extra cable I had laying around and still had the problem. Now I'm thinking it might be the 10\100 card and am getting ready to go get a new one when the disk drive goes into action (maybe just a coincidence?) and the net is up. Net works fine all day even if I put the computer to sleep and wake it up.

Today..
Wake up to same problem. No net, no light to the router connection to my computer. Daughter's computer and the 360 both have lights working on the router. Unplugg, reset and I can connect. Then the net slows down to a crawl. I exit firefox and of course can't reconnect but windows says the connection is fine. Try again with IE and it connects then firefox connects (this seems to happen occasionally on my machine. That is, firefox won't connect but IE will and once IE does firefox will, strange?).

FWIW I do have an open terminal on the router and tried the cable, both old and new, in that slot also which did not fix the problem.

So, I'm back to thinking my card could be going bad.
Anything else to check?

Thanks

[Draft Dodger]

that's a pretty good place to start, especially since NIC cards are so cheap

[Sweed]

dola

Don't mean to write a book about this but one more thing.

Opening the box I see it doesn't have an actual nic(?) 10/100 card. The LAN connection is a little box with the LAN and two usb ports attached to the motherboard.

If it is the LAN can I just put in a card and use it? (easiest fix, I can do it myself)

Does that little box have to be replaced? (have to take to computer guy in town)

If I can simply add a card would I have to disable the old LAN connection before the computer will use the card?

Again thanks for any input.

[BrianD]

You can add a card and use it. Windows will still see both network ports, so remember to plug in to the right one and don't be too worried if you still see an icon telling you the network is disconnected...that should be the original connection that you are no longer using.

[Sweed]

Thanks DD and BrianD. FOFC comes through again