I got a balloon in the task bar saying that there was an update for Windows about an hour ago. I went and downloaded and installed it. Not sure what it was, but it had some sort of license agreement to it. Anyways, it installs and I reboot.

Now I have no internet at all. No IM, no e-mail, no Firefox, no nothing. Unfortunately I also have System Restore turned off and have had it off for a while as I thought it was a waste of disk space. So now I'm stuck with an XP partition that has no internet connectivity and I can't reverse it back to what it used to be.

Oh and I know Windows is the problem because I'm using Ubuntu on the exact same machine and the internet works just fine.

Anyone have any ideas?

Edit - Well it looks like the connection came back. Not sure how I did it, but I took a trip through the home network setup wizard, restarted, seemed like nothing was done, but then suddenly I get internet back. I'm guessing either that did it or something else was just screwy with my connection and now it's normal.

Next time go into device manager and see if your network adapter has a red X or yellow exclamation !, if it does right click the adapter, select properties and uninstall it, then restart the machine.

Upon reboot Windows will reinstall it, and it should work just fine, a friend of mine had the very same thing happen on his machine today.

I have a similar problem. PLEASE HELP!

An hour ago, there was an update for windows (windows malicious software removal tool or something similar) with a license agreement, which i accepted and installed - and no internet after that. i was using wireless. now i have tried cable as well, but it does not work either.

i have tried to reinstall my wireless adapter card, but did not help.
i went through network wizard, but did not help.
i checked device manager, but there is no X or any exclamation marks.

What is the solution for this?

Your help would be appreciated...

Go to add remove programs, show updates and remove the last two Security Updates for Windows XP. I think they are KB951748 and KB951978. You will have to reboot and you'll have internet access again. I too have Zone Alarm installed and only resolved the problem by removing those two updates.