Iam having same trouble - older FA 311 NIC cant get ip address from DSL modem. Constantly displayslimited conectivity unidentified network. I got it working somehow when I replaced the Rev A FA311 card with a Rev C card I had. It worked for a day until I was forced to reinstall Windows 7 after a loss of keyboard and mouse function. Now I'm back tolimited conectivity unidentified network with this card.Am I going to have to buy a new NIC card? Seems ridiculous. ip release/renew doesnt work - they time out.

UncheckInternet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) in your network settings and this might be the problem,,, was with mine.

Thanks for the suggestion, but no joy. This PC worked fine on the same hardware with xp. I just can'tget a dhcp ip address. ipconfig always shows the default 69...something ip address. ipconfig/release gives an error saying there isn't a valid ip address....well, duh. Ipconfig/renew just hangs. Meanwhile the 4 other computers on my Netgear ethernet switch are happily working. Sorry for rambling, I just wanted to vent.

See if this applies:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

I had tried that before and it didn't help. I dug up yet another NIC card, a discontimued 3Com model, downloaded the driver from 3Com's archives, and it worked immediately. So maybe a NIC card issue, driver issue, or the regedit fix works with this card. At least it works now.Norm

haha should learn to look more when searching topics i missed this all together had same issue here is the fix.check and see if you have two network title's in your network sharing center if you do then change your connection name to something other then local area connection (e.g network or connection) this solved the issue for me i had a local connection only and two networks showed up one unidentified so i changed the connection name and here i am. for some reason this happens with upgrades from XP or Vista to windows 7 so far i tested it on Vista home premium Vista Business and XP home

Not just upgrade installs - I am using a dual-boot, with a clean install of Win7 to a separate partition, and I've had several instances of two "networks" listed in the Networks window, with no ability to go online. Opening properties for the Unknown network, clicking Diagnose, and then the run tests as admin button has so far resolved the issues. I would suspect it's related to older routers, at least in my case (I'm using a Linksys WAG354G v. 1). If it happens again I'll try the name-chnage solution.

I'm running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 beta, and my networkadapter is an Atheros L1 gigabit on an ASUS motherboard. This all works fine with XP and 64 bit Vista. The only way to fix it is to enable/disable the adapter via 'control panel - network and internet - networksharing center -change adapter settings'.Unplugging and plugging the networkcable sometimes helps. But any method I use generally needs to be repeated several times,but not always, andsometimes it does come up fine on its own. I've tried disabling IPV6, QoS, Client for MS Networks - I'veeven tried hard coding my gateway's IP address- nothing makes any difference. I've installed the latest drivers for the adapter as well. Things get stuck at "identifying", andI am left with an unusable "limited connection". I have of course configured the network as a "home" type network. I've also tried modifying my registry as in the suggestion above - no joy. This is no upgrade but a clean install on a separate hard drive. I use the motherboard'spopup boot menu to select the drive that has either XP or Win7 on it. There is only one network configured, so no conflicts...

I still haven't found the why yet but my sure fire fix is to uninstall and don't forget to check the all drivers box.Reboot, problem fixed for another few days.

I am experiencing the exact same symptoms with an Intel PCI Gigabit NIC (PWLA8391GT) on my Win7 (x64) test box. I have tried the default Windows 7 drivers as well as the latest directly from Intel. Neither appear to have any problems, but neither pull an IP from my router or directly from the DSL modem. This leads to the same problem as the OP with limited connectivity and an unknown network.I just bought this NIC for this very test box due to a known incompatibility with the onboard NIC. It works fine under various other operating systems. All other obvious things like the router port and cable have worked flawlessly with other systems. Rebooting the router and everything else external I have tried, as well as the various fixes I see posted in similar threads make no difference.I threw in an Atheros wifi card out of curiosity, and it works like a charm. This being an HTPC, however, I would greatly prefer the wired setup. Given the number of similar posts, I hope this will be resolved soon.

Edited on Feb 7/2009I may have a work-around? Five (5) out offive successful boots with full networkso far, when usually only 1 out of 10 comes up successfully.(Added on Feb 8/2009 - 12 out of 12 boots with full network!)(Added on Feb 9/2009 - 20 out of 20 boots with full network!)All network settings are default except that I hard coded the network adapter LAN speedinstead of leaving it at 'Auto'.My Windows 7 PC has an Atheros gigabit adapter which is connected toa D-Link gigabit switch which is connected to a gigabit router/DHCP server (D-Link Gamerlounge) which is connected to a 100 mbps cable modem. Both XP and Vista 64 bit come up with agigabit localconnection.However, to getWindows 7networking to work I had to manually change the adapter to 100 mbps / full duplex.For those who aren't as familiar: go to 'device manager', open 'Network Adapters', right-click on the active adapter and select 'properties', select the advanced tab, then select 'Media Type'. Set it to whatever you are connected to. If you're connected to a gigabit LAN, try going down a notch to 100 mbps.I wonder if it *is* an auto-negotiation issue?

frozen_on_Hoth said:For those who aren't as familiar: go to 'device manager', open 'Network Adapters', right-click on the active adapter and select 'properties', select the advanced tab, then select 'Media Type'. Set it to whatever you are connected to. If you're connected to a gigabit LAN, try going down a notch to 100 mbps.I don't have a Media type entry in the list of proeprties on the Advanced tab, but I do have a Speed and Duplex entry which brings up a list of speds, plus Auto-negotiation (which is what was selected). I've switched it to 100mbs half duplex for now.

Well, it seems I will be of no help on this problem, as my issue ended up being malfunctioning hardware after all. Self-diagnostics on my NIC indicated a faulty eeprom. I purchased another card (with a different chipset as a precaution) and plug and play proceeded as intendedGood luck, everyone.

Well, I hadn't had any glitches after specifying the connection type until today, when I again had two networks and no internet access. Still, it's been much better and I suppose this morning could have been a fluke.

I spent hours trying to fix this problem on my Windows 7 Professional RTM (bought Oct 22). Things were working fine until I messed around with advanced file sharing options trying to get my MacBook to see a shared folder. Don't know exactly what I did to cause the "Unidentified Network" to appear and stop internet connectivity. I tried powering down the PC and router and starting back up. That didn't work. finally I disabled my ethernet adapter, then re-enabled it. VOILA! Problem fixed. Sigh, I was having such good luck with Windows 7 up till this. My overall impression is still 95% positive though.