Need Help Fixing Internet Problem

[CloudDancing]

Insofar the CSRs at Cox Cable are too stupid to fix this.

So I spent the morning trying to troubleshoot the wireless connection on my laptop which kept getting stuck on "Identifying" and would not stay connected to the internet via wireless.

I checked a few websites, tried something with the router settings,

and I went to the command prompt on my main computer to check what sort of router I had. At least that is what I thought I did. According to the response I did'nt type the command right and it just counted as an error. So I closed it.

So I went on my merry way after just putting the laptop away in frustration.

The afternoon passed with no internet troubles.

I left for yoga, turned off my main computer

When I came home my main computer was stuck on identifying instead of instantly connecting to the LAN.

It stayed doing that no matter what diagnostic I ran and/or/if I used the router or I directly connected it to the cable modem.
Pretty quickly I removed the router from the equation entirely.

NOW I took out my laptop to check if my long LAN cable was broken. I used the short cable from my cable modem to my laptop.

Low and behold after three minutes of identifying a public network, it connected me to the internet.
(In the middle of this all was trying to talk to a human that knew about computers on tech support but that never happened.)

So I tried to connect my long LAN cable to my laptop and it worked just fine, too.

So end result:

My main computer won't connect to the internet because it starts "Identifying" a lan connection that never connects to the internet (that comes out with an icon like a park bench. It used to be a little house marked "home".)

My laptop attached to the same LAN cable goes through the same process, eventually identifies a public network, THEN connects to the internet.

I'd gladly let someone log into my desktop and fix this stupidity.

[Ronan]

It stayed doing that no matter what diagnostic I ran and/or/if I used the router or I directly connected it to the cable modem.
...
Pretty quickly I removed the router from the equation entirely.

I'm not clear on this: did connecting the cable modem directly fix the issue? I assume that is what you meant by "removed the router from the equation directly"?

[CloudDancing]

I removed the router from the connection setup entirely.

I just set it aside and started troubleshooting with the cable modem only via LAN connection.

And the identifying problem persisted.

Its complicated because I have the wireless router and the cable modem in a corner in the living room. Then I have a long LAN cable that curls around the wall and into my room and connects directly to my desktop computer.

The wireless is for the kids crappy laptop and for my laptop when I loan it to my sister.

I am trying to figure out why I can get a connection now on my laptop with the LAN and not on my desktop with the LAN?

(Btw I tried system restore twice and got an error that it could not be completed due to some file.)

[CloudDancing]

Hooray! (like anyone cares)

The diagnostic ended up fixing it with a IP address reset. However the router has been discovered as the source of the problem to start. So time for a new one.