Router Incorrectly Identified as Gateway

[Christopher Sadlowski]

Okay, you're some of the smartest gals and guys I know of, and I'm confident you'll keep me from ripping out my hair, banging my head against the wall, and trying to wash invisible blood off my hands in an oh so obsessive fashion. So, the other day I rebuilt my PC and everything seemed to go smoothly. All the components work (I think) and OS installation went right as rain. I installed my copy of Windows 7 Home Premium so I can apply my Windows 10 upgrade correctly to the serial numbers. But I'm having a weird problem with my internet that I can't seem to figure out. I really need some help here.
I install the chipset drivers included on the disc from my motherboard, an MSI 970A SLI Krait Edition (which is amazing, by the way. I've never owned one of these really expensive boards before but I might not be able to go back!) and I'm not getting any errors or anything appearing to fail. The NIC drivers for the onboard LAN port install, and my computer immediately connects to a public network. I change the setting in Windows to Private/Home and it changes the type but my router doesn't ask for its password. Also, the name of my home network doesn't appear and I can't disconnect from this weird connection. Now, I am able to surf the web, download files, and do everything else so that's not necessarily the problem. But what IS a problem, and I think it's affecting my ability to download from Windows Update and subsequently install Windows 10 (believe me, I already tried and that failed miserably), is that it appears that I can't connect correctly to Microsoft's servers. After poking around, I can only see my router correctly labeled when I look at the "Full Network Map" under something like "additional devices/ devices currently not connected" or something like that, but I can't connect to it because it says it's busy with a connect or disconnect operation. According to the network map I'm connected through a "Gateway". Oddly enough, this "gateway" is correctly named with the router's name when I view its properties. I can't seem to get this stupid "gateway" to be forgotten so I can attempt to scan for my router/home network. I have NO option to disconnect from this device and refreshing to discover new networks doesn't yield any results other than this faulty connection.
The router was set up on my laptop months ago, through a direct wired connection. After it was set up I've had the laptop running on WIFI only. The desktop, where I'm having trouble, is connected through a wire. Could that be the problem? I don't think it necessarily would be. When I check the ipconfig /all function the computer correctly identifies that it is connected to "dlinkrouter" and all other information appears to be correct as well. There IS an error with the "isatap" field where it says "media disconnected", but both IPv4 and IPv6 have IP addresses attached to them. So, there's that.
Here's what I did try so far, in no particular order:
-Multiple ipconfig /release, /renew, and /dnsflush commands.
-Rebooting the modem and the router multiple times.
-Disabling IPv6.
-Deleting and reinstalling the drivers.
-A fresh install of Windows 7 (thank goodness I haven't done anything much with the computer. I have no data that needs to be maintained at this point so fresh installs aren't going to be a hassle for me other than time, which I have enough of!)

Things I HAVEN'T done:
-A factory reset of the router.
-Installing generic Windows drivers after a fresh install.

If anyone has any ideas, or you need more information, please let me know. You're help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Autocrat]

Okay, you're some of the smartest gals and guys I know of, and I'm confident you'll keep me from ripping out my hair, banging my head against the wall, and trying to wash invisible blood off my hands in an oh so obsessive fashion. So, the other day I rebuilt my PC and everything seemed to go smoothly. All the components work (I think) and OS installation went right as rain. I installed my copy of Windows 7 Home Premium so I can apply my Windows 10 upgrade correctly to the serial numbers. But I'm having a weird problem with my internet that I can't seem to figure out. I really need some help here.
I install the chipset drivers included on the disc from my motherboard, an MSI 970A SLI Krait Edition (which is amazing, by the way. I've never owned one of these really expensive boards before but I might not be able to go back!) and I'm not getting any errors or anything appearing to fail. The NIC drivers for the onboard LAN port install, and my computer immediately connects to a public network. I change the setting in Windows to Private/Home and it changes the type but my router doesn't ask for its password. Also, the name of my home network doesn't appear and I can't disconnect from this weird connection. Now, I am able to surf the web, download files, and do everything else so that's not necessarily the problem. But what IS a problem, and I think it's affecting my ability to download from Windows Update and subsequently install Windows 10 (believe me, I already tried and that failed miserably), is that it appears that I can't connect correctly to Microsoft's servers. After poking around, I can only see my router correctly labeled when I look at the "Full Network Map" under something like "additional devices/ devices currently not connected" or something like that, but I can't connect to it because it says it's busy with a connect or disconnect operation. According to the network map I'm connected through a "Gateway". Oddly enough, this "gateway" is correctly named with the router's name when I view its properties. I can't seem to get this stupid "gateway" to be forgotten so I can attempt to scan for my router/home network. I have NO option to disconnect from this device and refreshing to discover new networks doesn't yield any results other than this faulty connection.
The router was set up on my laptop months ago, through a direct wired connection. After it was set up I've had the laptop running on WIFI only. The desktop, where I'm having trouble, is connected through a wire. Could that be the problem? I don't think it necessarily would be. When I check the ipconfig /all function the computer correctly identifies that it is connected to "dlinkrouter" and all other information appears to be correct as well. There IS an error with the "isatap" field where it says "media disconnected", but both IPv4 and IPv6 have IP addresses attached to them. So, there's that.
Here's what I did try so far, in no particular order:
-Multiple ipconfig /release, /renew, and /dnsflush commands.
-Rebooting the modem and the router multiple times.
-Disabling IPv6.
-Deleting and reinstalling the drivers.
-A fresh install of Windows 7 (thank goodness I haven't done anything much with the computer. I have no data that needs to be maintained at this point so fresh installs aren't going to be a hassle for me other than time, which I have enough of!)

Things I HAVEN'T done:
-A factory reset of the router.
-Installing generic Windows drivers after a fresh install.

If anyone has any ideas, or you need more information, please let me know. You're help is greatly appreciated!

These could be out of date, get the latest from the manufacturers website.

I would also just try factory resetting the router if it is not playing nice.

 

[Christopher Sadlowski]

Okay, I used the updater tool from MSI to grab the latest driver but too may be incorrect. I'll see if their website has anything different that the tool might not be picking up. If that fails I'll factory reset my router. I'm thinking that disconnecting everything that's currently reliant on it and leaving them disconnected during setup except for the wired connection from the back of the PC tower might minimize any snafus. Now that I think of it, I'll check to see if there are any firmware updates for the router too. The last time I checked it was up to date but that may have changed. I'll report back, hopefully successful! ::crosses fingers::
EDIT - by the way, LOVE the Daria icon! One of my most favorite shows ever. Quite the blast from my past; I wish they made shows like that these days.

Okay, so I found more recent drivers for the onboard NIC. I installed them and, nothing. It was still connecting to the internet but still through that "gateway". So I did a factory reset which caused WAY more of a headache than it should have. Apparently all my devices freaked the F out and I spent quite a bit of time reconfiguring them. So, with that, there's a new development; I'm not sure how much of this may be related. I thought, "Well maybe something in the CMOS is messed up. This is a refurbished board and maybe some settings or something weren't fully cleared out?" So I open my case and guess what, THERE'S NO JUMPER THERE! Now, maybe I'm simply forgetting the norm, but isn't the jumper supposed to be in place all the time and removed only to clear the CMOS? If that's the case, then it may be why the network interface is acting up, or it may not be. Either way, it seems I need to request one be sent to me to have on hand. I obviously didn't think "Oh wait, let me hang on to the CMOS jumper before bringing this old PC to the recycling center!"