‘Repairing’ a connection is sometimes a quick way to resolve some connection issues. You can access the connection settings via the ‘Network Connections’ page, but I find it’s generally useful to have the status icon enabled (it makes it quicker to repair).

In XP:

1) Enabling the connection status icon

If there is a ‘My Network Places’ icon on your desktop double-click that. If not double-click on ‘My Computer’ and select ‘My Network Place’ from the left hand panel.

From ‘My Network Place’ select ‘View network connections’ from the left panel.

Find you router connection on the page (USB or LAN). Right-click it and select ‘Properties’. This will bring up a window with a ‘General’ tab and an ‘Advanced’ tab.

At the bottom there should be a tick box with the phrase “Show icon in notification area when connected” – make sure that’s ticked.

Then click on ‘OK’

2) Repairing the connection

When it comes to repair the connection, right-click on the icon in your system tray (lower right next to the clock) that looks like two PCs.

A pop-up menu should appear – select ‘Repair’ from this menu.

If you don’t want to use the icon then:

If there is a ‘My Network Places’ icon on your desktop double-click that. If not double-click on ‘My Computer’ and select ‘My Network Place’ from the left hand panel.
From ‘My Network Place’ select ‘View network connections’ from the left panel.
Find you router connection on the page (USB or LAN). Right-click it and select ‘Repair’.

This is a before a repair, example of the connection status:

This is a after a repair, example of the connection status: