Can't connect to internet. Trouble shooter asks "plug an ethernet cable into this computer." WHAT?

[482]

I have windows 8 and so does my brother. Also my mom has windows 7. The rest of my family including my phone all the other phones in my house their computers and my brothers kindle all have connection. It said an ethernet cable is broken which is bs. Also when I try to open the hp system recovery it never opens. I'm trying to stay up to fate with my virus protecting but I can't without internet... Charter has recently rebooted my router and stuff and it should be all good. I think something may be wrong with my computer internally. I've tried plugging the cable into my computer and then it doesn't even fix anything. I have limited internet. Which still allows me to do nothing. I need someone we'll educated to help me out. I hope I've gave you enough information. Thanks for anything.

[Darky]

But you posted this...You need the internet for the internet... XD

[Jacob]

Okay, it sounds like you connect your computer directly into the modem/ router correct?

Working off that there are 4 possible problems that spring to my mind.

1.) The ethernet cable is bad. It happens, try using a different one to see if this fixes the issue.

2.) The Chip/ Card that your enternet cable plugs into on your computer has gone bad somehow. This is also possible given the response your computer gave you, I would imagine it is an issue with the actual connecter.

3.) A driver/ software for your chip has been deleted or altered somehow. Unlikely, usually the computer would tell you this rather than saying it is a faulty ethernet cable. But a virus could be blocking you from accessing the internet. It doesn't want you to update virus/malware software.

4.) The ethernet port on the modem/router is bad. Again this is possible and happens. Try switching ports, if that doesn't work all of them could have gone bad.

[cathugger]

Unclear!!

If you are connecting to the net with with a wire i.e. an ethernet cable - try another cable. Or test your cable on another computer.

If your cable is fine, try rebooting your wired router or cable modem (and after that comes up you may need to reboot the wireless router if it is a separate box). By reboot I mean unpower, wait 5 seconds, repower.

If you are connecting via Wifi - many Compaq and HP laptops have a key that turns on/off wireless. On my one HP it is a separate button that says WLAN or has a picture of an antenna. On this Compaq it is on my F12 key which has a picture of an antenna and a blue light that is ON when my wireless is enabled.

Also some firewall software has an option to lock the network and not allow any traffic to/from your PC - if you have a firewall like that make sure it doesn't have the network locked.

If you just can't get it work then maybe you have a hardware problem or you may have trashed something in your OS.