Last week, something strange occurred. One morning I woke up, updated my computer, checked email and IM as usual, and took off for the day. I came back home later that night, and noticed that Mozilla Firefox wasn’t connecting to the internet. So I tried my other web browsers; Internet Explorer, Apple Safari; Google Chrome, and Opera. To my disbelief, it seemed that IE, Firefox, and Safari just stopped working. Chrome and Opera work just fine.

Shortly after discovery, ran multiple anti-malware and antivirus programs with thorough scans, and found nothing. I then proceeded to utilize the “Diagnose Connection Problems” tool in IE, but that was practically useless, as it diagnosed my PC as having an unplugged cable. The icon in my system tray even indicates that the status of my Local Area Connection is “Connected” and NOT Local Only

- Can’t use system restore, not even in safe mode, as none of my restore points work

- I power-cycled (reset) my modem and my router several times

- I right clicked on the system tray icon to “Repair” the connection

- I made an attempt to make a change to every single LAN/Broadband connection setting within IE itself (except Dial-up settings, as I don’t use Dial-up, and those settings were fine anyway)

- I went through the Microsoft Windows Troubleshooting Guide, thoroughly

- Ran the Internet Connection Wizard several different times with attempts at configurations with different settings

- Disabled Firewall

- Removed Antivirus Programs

- Reset IE to default settings

- Uninstalled IE 8 and 7, checked IE 6 after removing XP SP2 & SP3, but this had no effect

- Removed all recent Windows Updates

- Reinstalled XP Service Packs 2 and 3, and also IE 8

- I cleared all browsing history, cookies, cache, temp files & other miscellaneous data stored by each web browser

*I’m aware that even if you’re not an IE user, the configuration settings within the program are vital to many other programs on your computer, and the overall health of your operating system.*

NONE OF THESE ATTEMPTS WORKED!!!

So I’m lost, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t check my email on Outlook (these settings are fine, by the way), I can’t use certain installers for certain programs as some of them require open internet connection, but don’t connect, I can’t use Windows Update, and more importantly, I can’t update my antimalware/antivirus software definitions.

There are only a handful of certain programs that will connect to the internet, but not that many; for example, Windows Live Messenger will connect, but Yahoo Messenger won’t, some online fullscreen computer games work/connect, some don’t. It’s quite frustrating really. I’ve even considered reinstalling Windows, but I can’t risk losing some of my work at the moment, as I currently have no method of backing it up. I thought about calling Microsoft, but really, who wants to deal with “them?”

What could be the issue…? And what can I do to fix this…?
-SPECS-

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (32bit)
Connected via Ethernet -to- Cable Modem @ 100mbps (normal data transfer speed from modem to computer [24mbps internet/download speed])
There are NO proxies involved

-CONNECTION ORDER-

Computer -to- Router
Router -to- Cable Modem
Cable Modem -to- wall

-NOTE-
It should also be known that I have a separate [laptop] computer that runs just fine with all internet enabled programs.

Sorry for the large, bulky post. I will repost this question later if I can’t get prompt solutions by the end of the day, so please understand.

Thank You.
No, I haven’t reinstalled the Network Driver, but I didn’t think to do so, since I have other programs that are still working. However, I will give that a try later today.

But hypothetically, let’s say that doesn’t work…. What else should I do then?
I just tried uninstalling and reinstalling my network drivers, but to no avail.

Now what do I do…?