ok, said i would have a go at fixing my gf's uncles pc last night! Everytime opened I.E he got 'page cannot be displayed'. . modem had signal but when checking ip address it was 169.254.100.152 where it should start with either 80 something i am sure. released it but when tried to renew told cannot contact dhcp server. took it back to mine where t'internet works and it was same. so, have made sure everything was set to automatic, disabled firewall, uninstalled SP2, re-installed NIC drivers, tried another NIC, tried broadband install cd again, tried USB connection then finally uninstalled windows and put my copy on and...................................its still the same!

tried support.microsoft.com but didnt find any help there, i am well and truely
stumped, can anyone help

ita telewest blueyonder cable modem being used.

i have the same problem....i have the motorola surfboard sb5100 (or summat like that)

you have to connect through usb for some reason rather than ethernet....dont know why (i cnt get ethernet to work) but usb works brilliantly....also if its xp you shouldnt even need to install driver or owt......its just plug n play


hope this has help you

Prior to this losing internet connectivity, what was your relative doing?

oh well managed to get it going!! wouldnt connect at my place but took it back to his and working a dream, had to repair winsock after installing sp2. now working on usb and ethernet, but its staying on ethernet! thanks anyway guys!
he had previously used his recovery cd's after getting a virus or something, windows refused to start.