Quote Originally Posted by Webhead View Post
First, what does diagnosing a hard drive have to do with the scenario Pinnacle described?
Oh man, that's like troubleshooting 101 basics right there. Always start at the physical layer.
Quote Originally Posted by Webhead View Post
Second, why would it be weird to look for unplugged cables in that scenario? Raising the white flag. I give up! What's the correct answer oh mighty know-everything-ceebee?
Because at that point you don't have any indication that you should check the cable. Yes, it *COULD* very well be, just as well as it could be a workgroup switch in the middle that got disconnected from the core switch. All you know is that most/all network resources are inaccessible -> can't talk over TCP/IP.
WHY? because the link is down or because the traffic can't reach the destination
Do an IPCONFIG /ALL - inspect the adapter status - say you see media disconnected
WHY? Because the adapter is acting up or because the link is actually down.
Inspect the link light - say it's off - no link - bad cable or switch port

Now say the media didn't show disconnected - do you have a proper IP config? Can you ping by IP? Then look into firewall, more than one adapter and one with a low metric taking the traffic in the land of nowhere, static routes etc etc.