My pc won’t connect to the internet via Ethernet and when troubleshooted I receive the error “Ethernet does not have a valid IP configuration

[Christopher1837]

Hi all, 

this is my first post and I’m not very good when it comes to technology and items related to this but yesterday my pc suddenly stopped connecting to the internet I rebooted and this solved my problem for that day however today I have booted up and have been phased with the same problem I have tired resetting my router, my pc and the following command prompt winsock reset but nothing has worked.

 

this is my first problem 3 months after building my first pc and I was wondering if I could receive any help regarding the matter I apologise in advance if I don’t understand the terminology used but I will try my best to help in the solution to the problem 

[burh4n]

Have you tried setting a static IP address for your PC?

[Christopher1837]

5 minutes ago, burh4n said:

Have you tried setting a static IP address for your PC?

No, can you please explain how to do that 

[Zalosath]

11 minutes ago, Christopher1837 said:

Hi all, 

this is my first post and I’m not very good when it comes to technology and items related to this but yesterday my pc suddenly stopped connecting to the internet I rebooted and this solved my problem for that day however today I have booted up and have been phased with the same problem I have tired resetting my router, my pc and the following command prompt winsock reset but nothing has worked.

 

this is my first problem 3 months after building my first pc and I was wondering if I could receive any help regarding the matter I apologise in advance if I don’t understand the terminology used but I will try my best to help in the solution to the problem 

If you are running a passthrough ethernet then turn the powerline off and on again. And ensure the ethernet is firmly within the passthrough socket.

[burh4n]

I could explain, but it will be more beneficial for you to look it up and learn

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+10+set+a+static+ip+address

[Christopher1837]

6 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

If you are running a passthrough ethernet then turn the powerline off and on again. And ensure the ethernet is firmly within the passthrough socket.

I have tried that I know it is not a problem with the passthrough Ethernet as i tester it on my PS4 and it worked perfectly fine  

[Christopher1837]

24 minutes ago, burh4n said:

I could explain, but it will be more beneficial for you to look it up and learn

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+10+set+a+static+ip+address

Okay I know how to do it yet I am unsure on what my ip, subnet mask and default gateway are, Sorry if this is really simple but where can I find these? 

[burh4n]

18 hours ago, Christopher1837 said:

Okay I know how to do it yet I am unsure on what my ip, subnet mask and default gateway are, Sorry if this is really simple but where can I find these? 

I will explain below, but in case this doesn't work, and for future troubleshooting posts, it would be good to know what your network connection looks like. Based on your initial post, people will have to make a lot of assumptions, and if you're looking to fix things quickly, it's best to eliminate assumptions. Here's an example of what I mean when describing your network connection:

Modem >> Router >> 5 GHz WiFi >> Desktop PCIe WiFi card

As of your first post, this is what I (or anyone else might assume your setup looks like):

Modem >> Router >> Wire >> Desktop

If this is correct, then it's a lucky guess, but @Zalosath asked about a powerline adapter, which is another device in the chain and would be important to know about. Including distances can also be helpful, but if you're not sure the specifics of the distance from your router/WiFi to your PC (wired, wireless, or powerline adapter), if you don't know the exact distance, you could say something like "next room over" or "basement to second floor" to give a rough idea of how far apart things are.

 It's also helpful to understand what OS specifically you're using. Since you mentioned using command prompt, we can assume it's a Windows PC, but knowing what version will be helpful to understand if there is a possible update that caused this issue (I've seen Win10 updates cause this exact issue). Also, as a quick aside, if you're not very familiar with tech (as you state in your first post), then you should be cautious with entering things into the command prompt you find online. The one you used is fine, but I would caution you to be careful in the future and to research the command before running. 

Okay, now to your question.

Every device on your network gets an IP address. If your phone is able to connect to your network, you can download an IP scanner (personally I use Fing on Android, which can also be found for iOS) to see what devices are connected to your network and their IP addresses. Most likely, you'll see something like 192.168.1.X, 192.168.0.X, or 10.0.0.X; where X is any number 1-254.

Your default gateway is the IP address of your router, most likely it will be the first device (with an IP address of X =1). You may also be able to find the IP address of your router by looking at the label on the back/side of the router.

Your subnet value you can set to 255.255.255.0 (this is standard for home networks).

Finally, set your PCs IP address to a number that's not already assigned to a device (from your scan). So if there highest address taken is (for example) 192.168.1.32 then you could assign 192.168.1.33 to your PC. Personally, I like to go much higher to be sure, so I would use something like 192.168.1.88, this way if there was a device that was in standby or disconnected, it wouldn't be looking for the address.

As a note, static IP addresses are not a good idea for devices that switch networks often. Assuming you're using a desktop this shouldn't be an issue. If you'd like or have more questions, you can share screenshots of your network scan (make sure to block anything private you don't want visible online) or just post the results of the network scan for the IP address of your router and the highest IP address (and don't forget to post your network configuration as well).