Stephanie writes in with a networking question
Q. When I click internet explorer the page comes up with "this page cannot be displayed". I went through a series of steps and was told that my network connections disappeared. How can I fix this? What is an Ethernet card? Help, I am computer illiterate!!
A. It sounds like you may be having a problem with your Ethernet connection or cable assuming you are using DSL or Cable for your internet connection. An Ethernet card is another name for a network card which is where you plug your internet connection into the back of your computer.
If you were told that your network connection was gone then you should check Device Manager and make sure that you have an Ethernet/network card listed there. It will be listed under Network Adapters which is yet another name for the same thing.
If your card is not there then you have a hardware problem and it can be many things. Since you said you are not good with computers then you may have to take it in to a shop to have it diagnosed. Sometimes you can take the card out and re-insert it or put it in a different slot to have the computer recognize it again. If it’s a built in card then that is not an option.
If you do have a network card listed there make sure that there is no yellow exclamation point or question mark on the card. This indicates a problem with its configuration or driver. From Device Manager you can try to roll back the driver to a previous version by going to the Driver tab and clicking on Roll Back Driver. You can also update the driver by downloading it from another computer and installing it off of a disk on to your computer.
Once you get the problem with your network card solved then your connection in Network Connections should come back and you should be able to get online again. Unfortunately it may not be easy unless you get some help from someone who can actually look at your computer to diagnose the problem.
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