Vista Networking Issues – Unable to Ping Localhost – Fix Guide

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I'm trying to fix a friends laptop running Vista. He told me his wireless networking wasn't working which I confirmed. I then tried the ethernet NIC and it also didn't work. I am unable to even ping localhost/127.0.0.1. I noticed when I issue an "ipconfig /all" command the assigned IP comes back with:

169.254.238.242 (Preferred)

My understanding is this comes back when the computer can't get an IP address using DHCP. I even tried assigning a static IP address (192.168.1.x for my home network) but no luck. I did some research and found this seems not to be an uncommon problem. I notice there are a lot of tunnels, etc. I'm not a big Vista guy so I'm not exactly sure what's going on here. I even tried upgrading the driver for the ethernet controller but no luck. I figure since it's happening with both wireless and the ethernet conroller it has something more to do with the the OS/dirver configuration. Here is the entire output of the ipconfig /all command:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Brent-PC
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet
 Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-B8-FC-DE-81
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.238.242(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5B91 Wireless Network Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-69-8F-1A-AB
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{9F10C518-8D3F-40BF-9D1B-15A8FDD95
808}
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{5559AAD9-B5EF-4392-A7B3-D9DF2A2B8
60E}
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{62E497EB-9F7D-4AA8-A696-3D1AAB6F9
C03}
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{15C75D20-E062-4983-8152-98017F1D1
A56}
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes