I need some help in understanding my windows 7 home premium laptop... All of a sudden, it stopped getting an IP address, I only get an APIPA address. I have fired it up using a linux liveCD just to verify that the NICs are ok, and they were. When I start the computer up and log into the desktop, I notice that it takes a while before it gives me a status on the network connection. It stays a while on "Identifying" and then ends up with "Unidentified network" and no IP address. I have tried all sorts of things, like resetting the TCPIP stack and winsock: netsh winsock reset catalog netsh int ip reset I have also run adaware, scanned the machine using portable apps clamwin antivirus etc. Done so many things I am loosing control. This is an Acer Aspire 5739G, and I never got around to building the recovery CDs before it stopped working... so I do not have a good way of doing a reinstall, so I need to find a way to fix this. When I try to do an ipconfig /renew (as administrator) I get the following error: "An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions." I have tried setting a fixed IP address, but that does not work either. It is the same behaviour both for the LAN and the WLAN nic... I have also removed the NICs from device management, ticking to remove the driver, and then re-installed the drivers. No go still... I am coming up short with ideas to fix this, I need help. Anyone? Technical details: Laptop make and model: Acer Aspire 5739G WLAN nic: Intel WiFI Link 5100 AGN LAN nic: Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20) Windows version: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

I had this problem on a Vista workstation a few years back. Take a look at this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/819124 It seems like you are running two programs that are trying to use the same socket.

Thanks, had a look at the article but it doesn't really make any suggestions on how to fix this. Do you, or anyone, know how I can identify the culprit?

Ok, have you changed anything within your firewall settings? However, with a Winsock error I wouldn't believe that is the issue. I would utilize the FormagMessage utility and the WSAGetLastError utility (In reverse order). Check here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc507522%28v=vs.85%29.aspx and here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms740668%28v=vs.85%29.aspx *From there it should give you an error code that you will be able to diagnose*

Sorry to sound like a complete idiot, but how do I do any of that? Are these commands I can run or do I need to start fiddling about with powershell or vbscript?

Hi, According to your description, you could alsotry the following steps to check what the result is: 1. You could try System Restore to get back to a previous time point which Windows 7 worked fine. 2. Bypass the router and connect to cable modem directly for a test. 3. Try to boot into Safe Mode with networking to check what the result is. 4. Temporarily turn off firewall on the machine. Alex Zhao Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.