I've had a copy of Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) laying around on my desk for a couple of weeks now, at the weekend I decided to install it, and I'm sorry to report that it wasn't all plain sailing
Because I'm running XP, and I can't afford to be without a computer, I installed Windows 7 on an unused disk partition, and I set it up so I could dual-boot into either XP or Windows 7. The installation went without a hitch (I'd already run the compatability test), and all appeared to be OK until I noticed a small square in the bottom right-hand corner with a yellow warning triangle with an exclamation mark in the middle of it. Hovering the mouse over this icon, a box came up which said
Windows Network No Internet Access I could access all the other computers in my home/office network, but not the internet.
Now, I'm pretty experienced with computers, and I've been on basic networking courses, and looking at the Windows settings there didn't appear to be anything wrong with them at all. Unfortunately, internet access problems are the worst ones to have, because you can't access the internet to get online help.
Anyway, I fired up trusty old XP, and Googled for Windows 7 internet access problems, and it appears that these are quite common on Windows 7. I found a forum where a user was having identical problems to me, and the people there gave him a couple of things to try. Well, the one which worked for him didn't work for me, but the second thing that was suggested (that I'd already tried) now worked for me. I'll include the technical details of what I did below, in case anyone here has the same problem. You are really only likely to see it if you access the internet via a router, and not via a modem connected to the USB port or a built-in ADSL modem.
Now for the tech bitsThe PC is set up with an IP address of 192.168.1.41, which is obtained by DHCP from a DrayTek 2820 ethernet router (IP bound to MAC address). When I look at the settings in Windows 7, it all looks OK.....
PC address
192.168.1.41Address Mask
255.255.255.0Gateway Address
192.168.1.1DNS Addresses
217.169.20 20, 217.169.20.21 (obtained from the router)
I can pull up the router's web page OK, but I can't resolve any URL's. Windows 7 diagnostics says that there is a problem accessing the DNS.
I've downloaded the latest 64-bit Windows driver for the Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCDI-E gigabit IP controller in the PC.
The fixesIn Windows 7, click on
Startthen in the search box at the bottom, type
cmd but do not hit enter !
Then hit the
CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER keys simultaneously.
A box will come up asking if you want to run this program, reply
YES.
This gives a command box with Admin rights.
Then at the prompt, type in
netsh int ip reset [Enter]When the prompt reappears, close the box.
This has worked for most people. It didn't for me. I also had to set my network card to use the OpenDNS settings
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220and then it worked. I'd already tried to use manual DNS settings before, and it didn't work.