proabley means the NIC is not being recgonized. Make sure it is enable in the bios. Open device manager and make sure it shows up there with no errors. Did you reinstall the recognized OS? Might need to reinstall the chipset driver

Ok, I got into Bios and it says NIC is on/enabled. But in DM under Network adapters, there's an exclamation point by "WAN Miniport (ATW)". The device status says "A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)" When I clicked "Troubleshoot..." my computer re-booted for no apparent reason...

Here is info on how to enter and check your bios setting. You enter the bios by pressing the F2 key as soon as you see the Big Dell Logo on the screen. We call this the Dell splash screen.

 

Bios settings

 

To check the device manager press the windows key on the keyboard then press the pause key.  Select the hardware tab then click on the device manage button. In the next window all you device will be shown. Look for any entries that have a yellow ! or red X on them. That means there is a problem with that device. look for the network listing and is should list your ethernet adapter.

C heck my updated my post. Also, I now have a USB ethernet port so I can at least download drivers or utility software or anything else you might suggest. I'd rather try to fix the onboard port if possible and return this USB thing and/or trade in for a cheap PCI card if the onboard NIC is truly shot.

Try this

Download and install this driver first

Chipset driver

 

then download and install this driver.

NIC Driver

Neither appeared to have any effect. Device Manager shows the same errors. When I clicked "Update Drivers" from within DM it couldn't find anything for "WAN Miniport" but said the drivers for "1394 Net Adapter" and "Intel PRO/100 VE Network Connection" were updated with the latest.

A couple years ago I had a USB wireless thing -- is that WAN thing a leftover from that? I don't have any type of wireless card in there now. Can I just uninstall the whole thing?

 

There is no light or glow, unlike normally when I'd plug in the cable and it would light up yellow if there was a successful connection.

The WAN must be a wireless card. the intel pro 10/100 is your internal nic. can you see the light at the back of the computer where the cable plugs into is it on flashing and color.

found out WAN miniport is related to AOL do you use AOL/

Nope, never have. Seems safe to uninstall eh?

from what i can tell by googling it, the wan miniport is something Aol or Aol related installs..