Network Troubleshooting

Acquiring Network Address problem

I recently solved "ACQUIRING NETWORK ADDRESS" problem on my friend's laptop and I just wanted to pass thing on.
My friend had this problem on his laptop ever since we reinstalled Windows XP. No matter what we tried his laptop just won’t connect to the internet. I have a Belkin N150 wireless router at home; all other laptops would connect but not his. It would get stuck with “ACQUIRING NETWORK ADDRESS”. I referred online help but its all about updating the drivers and other troubleshooting which I have all done.

Like most of us, I did initial troubleshooting on the IP settings, router configurations etc. Also tried updating the device drivers – the Ethernet driver and 802.11g Wireless LAN driver but nothing seem to resolve the problem. After the problem didn’t resolve for a long time, I felt kind of embarrassed as his expectation of me resolving the issue was high being an IT guy LOL :)
But finally I solved the problem, and here’s how I resolved it:-
To solve similar issues, start with the basic troubleshooting as mentioned above like checking IP settings, router configurations etc.

1. Assume you tried the basic troubleshooting
2. Check these setting in Services.msc
1. Start > run > services.msc
2. Make sure these services are started and set to automatic
1. WIRELESS ZERO CONFIGURATION (start | keep on ‘automatic’ )
2. DHCP CLIENT (start | keep on ‘automatic’ )
3. DNS CLIENT (start | keep on ‘automatic’ )

I am not sure if these services are activated by default, but I found they were not in my case. So you can start these services if they are not started.

And the issue was resolved. And we are able to connect to the internet both wired and wireless.

All the services mentioned above viz. wireless zero configuration, dhcp client and dns client can be enabled and set to automatic, as shown in the image below.