How do I get an ‘enabled’ wired connection to be recognised?

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I just purchased a new PC with Win 8 Pro from Dell. Due to a problem, Dell replaced the HDD. Following this, the engineer installed Win 8.1 Pro ‘clean’. Though he forgot to connect the ethernet cable before the install, he’d already set up the wireless network at the set up stage so the PC [XPS 8700] picked it up no problem. Now that a short time has elapsed it appears to have been a successful install.

The problem, though, now seems to be that the ethernet connection is being treated as an ‘unidentified public network’. In the ‘Network Sharing Centre’, it says ‘network access denied’ even when I disable the wireless connection.

If I click on ‘ethernet’, up comes the ‘ethernet status’ box. Clicking on the ‘properties’ box brings up several options. Being non-technical, I just don’t understand these I’m afraid.

Even a non-techie like me knows that there is a huge difference between the download/transfer speeds between wired and wireless which is why I want to get the wired connection up and running before I start downloading stuff to the new PC.

I suspect that the answer is quite simple but I can’t work it out – I just don’t know enough about networks, homegroups etc. Is there anyone out there with sufficient knowledge of Win 8.1 to help me here?

Thanks

Mike

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Have the drivers been installed for the Dell PC? After a clean install it’s mandatory to install the drivers for necessary for the functionality and stability the OS being installed. You’ll need to go to Dell’s website with your service tag # and that will bring up your specified device for software and drivers.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriversHome/ShowProductSelector

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Bassfisher: I’m a bit confused here. After I bought the PC, it seemed to work fine except that I couldn’t download 8.1. I contacted Dell + the technician suggested I did a factory reset. I did this but it stalled @ 98% + threw up an error message. I rang Dell + said I wasn’t happy – they sent an engineer to change the HDD, which he did, and to install 8.1 Pro from a DVD.

Based on the general stuff I’ve done on it (settings, personalisation etc.) the PC seems to be working OK. Doesn’t that mean that the drivers are OK but is there any way in 8.1 that I could tell?

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You’ll need to go into Device Manager/Network adapters and check to see if the Ethernet adapter is listed or if there is a yellow alert against it if it is listed, but going to Dell support as advised by bassfisher6522 and reinstalling it would be a first step.

If you are quite close to the router then there will be little difference in download speeds, but being wired will insure against loss of signal.

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