Local area connection-A network cable is unplugged? help!

First, light pink text on a light blue background is very difficult to read.  How are you connecting to the internet?  Are you connecting through a wireless connection?  Do you also have an ethernet network card installed in your computer?  If so, then the network cable unplugged message is likely referring to the possible connection with the ethernet card, which is not being used.  Thus, unless you connect the ethernet card to a network, you will always get this message.

What programs have you been trying to use that aren't working?  When you say they aren't working, could you give some examples of what that means?

Steve

Sorry about the text, it was my first post, and im a girly teen. I'm connected using dial-up (AOL). No, i dont have ethernet installed in my computer. Should I install it? How? I've been trying to use limewire, but it keeps saying it cant find a connection. Thats why i figured it was the LAN connection that was making it say that.

Lauren

Which model computer do you have?  Most of the newer models have a network card installed.  Of course you can't use the network card if you have no network to connect it to (usually a cable or dsl high speed modem).  If you don't have cable or dsl service, then you cannot connect the network card to anything. 

Did you know that Limewire installs a ton of spyware on your computer?  Spyware is now the most common problem reported on these forums.  If you go to the Virus Information and Removal forum, you will see thousands of messages from people trying to get rid of the spyware on their computer.  By installing Limewire, you likely have a ton of it.  There are many alternatives for these file sharing programs, and I strongly recommend that you uninstall Limewire and then download, install, update, and run both Spybot and Ad-Aware to get rid of the spyware.

http://www.lavasoft.de/index.html Ad-Aware

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download  Spybot

If you are still haveing problems, go to the following site and follow the directions to download and run the analysis tool called HijackThis.  Generate a log file, then open it and copy and paste the text of the log file in a message in the Virus Information and Removal forum where one of the HijackThis experts can offer advice on how to fix the problem:

http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/

For alternatives to Limewire that don't involve spyware, see the following:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/p2p/

Steve

wow! thanks so much!

And if you want to get rid of that pesky "cable disconnected" icon, go to "Control Panel" and click on Network Connections". If it shows any (other than your AOL dial-up connection) right-click on it and then left-click on "Disable". Then shut down and restart your computer.