The Geeks' Den

If you're using a wired network with a gigabit Ethernet switch:

If you're using a gigabit Ethernet switch device in your home network configuration and you're experiencing low video quality or choppy playback, try changing the flow control setting for your network adapter (also known as a network interface card (NIC)).

To enable flow control for your network adapter:
1. On your computer, click the Start button , click Control Panel, type view network connections in the search box, and then click View network connections.

2. Right-click your network connection, and then click Properties.

3. On the Networking tab, click Configure.

4. Click the Advanced tab, and in the list under Property, click Flow Control.

5. Under Value, choose an option to enable flow control (choose the Rx & Tx Enabled option if it's available), and then click OK.

NB: If enabling flow control doesn't help, you can also try changing the link speed for your network adapter (also known as a network interface card (NIC)).

To change the link speed for your network adapter:
1. On your computer, click the Start button , click Control Panel, type view network connections in the search box, and then click View network connections.

2. Right-click your network connection, and then click Properties.

3. On the Networking tab, click Configure.

4. Click the Advanced tab, and in the list under Property, click Link Speed & Duplex.

5. Under Value, choose the 100 Mbps Full Duplex option, and then click OK.

One of my Windows 7 PCs on my Home network (which has 3 XP machines, 1 Vista, and 2 Windows 7 machines) started having the "Unidentified Network" problem. It wouldn’t connect to the already existing Home Network setup that it previously connected to fine. After some trial and effort and research, this is the following approach that worked for me:

First of all I checked CMD Prompt to see my current IP address using the command: ipconfig and it had 169.254.x.x which appears when the gateway fails to give the computer a correct address. Which should be something like 192.168.x.x (dependant on your network setup).

So I changed my adapter MAC address:

Device Manager >
Network Adapters >
Right Click on the network card >
Properties >
Advanced Tab >
Network Address and enter a 12-digit alphanumeric string (0 to 9 or A to F) in the value field eg 1234567890AB >
OK

Now open CMD prompt and type:
ipconfig /release
Enter
ipconfig /renew
Enter

Success! Now my pc is back on the correct network and I am able to stream movies to my other PCs again.

UPDATE: Microsoft has an article relating to this issue here. It looks like the issue goes back to Windows Vista not able to obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-microsoft DHCP servers. I will update this post soon to show the 2nd option here.