Windows Vista Internet Connection Globe icon missing

[iShree]

There is a problem with Windows Vista in my system. It was working well but suddenly there was a problem with the connectivity. There was a small globe icon in the network which was missing. The icon that appear in system tray and tells you that the system connection is active. The current network icon on the system tray says access local only. Also there is a red cross on the network icon. It looks my system is connected but the net failed to work. I cannot make changes here nor I am able to stop windows update. This changes appeared automatically. Any idea why this occurred.

[GeneonMAC]

I am too facing the same kind of issue with my system also. The globe icon just disappeared. It sometime appear but sometime there is a small x mark at the connection. The internet looks to be working fine. I did not thought to make any changes here until that icon is gone. Because what matters is my internet connection. It is working well and there is no problem with that. So by making any changes I can screw the current settings. I hope there will be some kind of option that can fix the same. Let windows update run and add new things in your system. I think after that the problem will be gone.

[thesailor13]

This is really a very annoying issue. The red mark on the network icon indicates that you are not connected to any network. While still the network is accessible. Try to run system restore. I think that will help you. This thing is screwed by some existing changes in the system. You must perform a system restore and then check back. But if there any recent updates installed in your system will also be wiped out. I am using a Vista 32bit system and this kind of issue appear commonly on that.

[Ching]

I use Vista 64 bit and have had no problems since i installed it on my newly built PC. This afternoon one of my games crashed and I had to hard boot my machine. It came up again within a few seconds. Everything was working. I logged in to Yahoo! to check my mails and started playing some music. I wanted to increase the system volume, so I went down to the notification area and that's when I noticed I had a red cross on the network icon. It took me a while to figure out what was causing the poor fella to report I had no connection while I was actually connected locally to my router as well as to the internet.

This was what seemed to have happened:

Many system and/or local services failed to shutdown gracefully when I hard booted my machine and the Network List Service was one of them. This is the service responsible for showing us available networks and their status.

The Network List Service is by default set to automatic and should be started at all times. It uses the module 'nlasvc.dll' located in C:\Windows\System32\.

To resolve this problem, I simply restarted the Network List Service:

1. Press the Windows Logo key + R to get the Run box.
2. Type 'services.msc' (without the quotes) and press Enter.
3. Locate Network List Service.
4. Right click it and select 'Restart'.

In some cases, considering the service's dependencies and properties, the above solution may not help. So we can also try the following:

(Please be warned!! Modifying system files incorrectly can do more harm than good! So please proceed with caution!)

1. Browse to C:\Windows\System32
2. Locate 'nlasvc.dll'
3. Right-click and select its Properties
4. Go to the Security Tab and click on the Advanced button
5. Go to the Owner Tab
6. Under 'Change owner to' select your username and hit Apply and then OK. (For home-users like us, we normally have our accounts configured with Admnistrator rights, so we can set the owner as 'Administrators' as well.)
7. Back on the Security Tab, select your user account and click on Edit.
8. Under Permission for 'your username', put a check on the box beside 'Full control' and hit OK and then another OK to clear the properties box.
9. Right-click 'nlasvc.dll' again, choose rename and change its name to something like 'nlasvc.dll.old' or maybe 'nlasvc.dll.unwanted', anything you like. Make sure you note down the new name.
10. Restart your computer.
11. Browse to C:\Windows\System32 and locate the renamed file and rename it back to 'nlasvc.dll'
12. Restart the Network List Service by following the fours steps I wrote earlier.

Sorry about the long post.

- Ching

[pjmoz]

Thanks for this. Your second procedure has restored the globe and removed the little red cross. Hope it stays like that.

I have registered with the site just to post this, to try and highlight this method, as it is the only one I have found amongst many many people suffering the same problem.

Perhaps I spoke too soon, I have just restarted my PC and it has returned to the error state, ie red cross and no globe. Oh well, worth a try.

[VladimirKarasek]

If anybody has a solution for the following problem, please help:

Problem(s):
Connection status: unknown
Dependency service or group failed to start

Red X over the network Icon on the windows toolbar

In the Network and Sharing Center, Network discovery cannot be turned on, again for the reason given: Dependency service or group failed to start

Despite all that, I can surf the Internet !!!!

I have already tried all solutions found on internet. All of them are from 2008. Nothing worked so far.
Sincerely, Vladimir

[Stroud]

To solve "Dependency service or group failed to start" problem make sure the service COM+ Event System is enabled and running. If it is disabled then enable it and see if it helps.

If this isn't helpful then it might be due to TCP/IP Stack corruption. In order to fix this, launch command prompt as administrator. Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (Right-Click and Run as Administrator). Now type: "netsh winsock reset" and press Enter.

[VladimirKarasek]

Stroud, thank you for reply. I had reset the winsock. Both my COM+ Event System and COM+ System Application services are running.
Still, my network globe icon is red Xed. I just found, that I can access other computer on this home network. However, they cannot see my computer, neither can they use my shared printer. My connection says: Connected with limited access.
In Network Sharing Center, the Network discovery is turned off and cannot be turned on because: The dependency service or group failed to start.
So far, I have no idea what is the culprit.
Thank you again,
sincerely, Vladimir

[newtech]

The message about "Connected with limited access" is telling you is you didn't get a valid IP from the router/dhcp server. This seems to be an issue with Vista and SOME routers. Updating your router firmware may fix the issues, many had to be updated to work with Vista. The other issue that seems to cause this on some machines is IPv6. You can turn off IPv6 from the network center, just click the adapter, click properties, and uncheck IPv6 from the list that shows. IPv6 isn't used for internet at all at this time and really isn't needed. It appears to be causing many issues with routers and systems that don't support it, so turning it off is not a bad thing and won't hurt. You can always turn it back on.

[ecoten]

I have 2 network adapters, a wireless one and a ethernet one. I found that disabling (and re-enabling - was fixed before I re-enabled it) either of the adaptors fixed this. To avoid disruption to the otherwise working network connection you can disable the one you're not using (or enable it if already disabled).

Hope this helps someone.