Did you say you’re getting this issue on both your desktop and laptop computers? And if so are they both connected via ethernet cable not via wifi? If so, are the cables plugged directly into the back of your ISP’s router (Livebox, Freebox, etc…) or do you have your own switch that’s then plugged in to the ISP’s router?
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The numbers look OK, but “Media State: Media disconnected” would not be what I’d expect if your computer is supposed to be connected by Ethernet to the router.
We think two problems. One with desktop bein unstable. Laptop now is ok except won’t connect to Orange or any of our orange email accounts.
Hello again helpful people…
It is not the cable. With much crawling around on the floor and swapping cables we have found that the laptop will access internet when attached to the ethernet port that desktop uses. However when same cable is plugged into back of tower for desktop the troubleshooted says no ethernet cable connected - despite green light.
Any new ideas of what to try?
(The laptop’s problems seems to be restricted for firefox and orange, so we are ignoring it for the time being).
What model of laptop?
Come to that - and the desktop?
I know that the laptop works on the same port - after a fashion - but did you try using a different cable to the desktop?
Have you had any local thunderstorms recently? In the past I’ve had network cards rendered useless by a voltage spike caused by nearby lightning…
(Edited to change lighting to lightning…)
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I agree that it’s sensible to ignore the issue with Firefox on your laptop for the time being.
I’m tempted to think, like @_Brian, that this might be a hardware issue with the network interface on the desktop PC. Whether it’s from a lightning strike or something else remains to be seen, but if the laptop works when using the same ethernet cable connected to the same router, then it sounds like it’s something on the desktop PC.
I don’t suppose you have a collection of spare parts lying around to troubleshoot it…? 
It’s a shame that you live so far away as I have a spare ethernet-to-USB adapter that I could lend you to test this theory. I can pop it in the post if you’re not in a rush. Otherwise you could pick one up on Amazon, test it out and then send it back if it doesn’t help fix the problem 
https://www.amazon.fr/TP-Link-Adaptateur-UE306-Conception-compatible/dp/B09FDRMZ73/
That’s more or less the assumption that I came to as well. The only other explanation is still that it’s the cable but one of the pairs that only GbE uses - hence querying which laptop (in case it’s old enough to have only 100Mb/s Ethernet).
I’ve been caught out by GbE syncing at 100Mbps and GbE syncing, but then being intermittent when it’s been pair 1 or 4 that has had issues.
Both are Dell’s. The laptop new, the desktop old, but with new hard drive fairly recently as it went pop. Which is a thought! We could take the tower to the man who repaired it last time as only 60km away if all else fails. He was just very slow.
And yes tried two cables in different configurations.
As for last two posts I hardly understood a word! Can the network interface be tested to see if it works. And could vigorous dusting equal a lightening strike (which we haven’t had).?
I’d offer to nip round as I’m in France this week but as you appear to be a nine hour drive away that might be impractical.
OK, it is pointing more to a dodgy Ethernet port on the Desktop.
I’d actually suggest an PCI Ethernet card rather than the USB adapter that @Gareth suggested. While it is very useful to have one of those in the toolbox if your desktop is old enough it might only have USB2 ports which limits performance. Also cheap PCIe Ethernet cards are very cheap indeed these days - eg
https://www.amazon.fr/TP-Link-TG-3468-Express-Gigabit-Ethernet/dp/B003CFATNI/
Even that’s a bit on the dear side as these things go (you can get them for a fiver posted on eBay UK) but it seems to be the cheapest that Amazon do.
Only if your were wearing nylon clothes which generated a static charge 
I think your keyboard dusting and the failure are coincidental. Did you dust around the back of the machine as well? You say the green light is on when you plug in the cable? So, the card is working. Do you know what version of Windows you have? I haven’t used Windows since version 7 so I’m probably way out of date.
@billybutcher @Gareth Maybe reinstall the card driver? It’s so long since I used Windows I can’t remember problem determination 
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Sorry if its already been suggested (havent read back through all the posts)but would it be worth trying to connect using WiFi? I’ve had similar problems with a Dell desktop computer.
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I don’t suppose there is anything like with dodgy sound cards that once can do some form of update/reinstall? Which I vaguely remember doing once.
And yes I could get a PCI ethernet card, but what would I do with it?
We can’t remember if we updated to Windows 11.
Pop it in a spare PCIe slot there should be one available unless you have one of the small form factor machines (which brings us back to the exact model potentially helping, if you can remember what it is).
Given my cat has the ability to create mayhem by merely stepping onto my keyboard - and did so regularly prior to the acquisition of a Mac - I would certainly not dismiss the possibility that you might manage to hit some combination of keys that had an effect - though perhaps not in this case, given the symptoms.
Bon courage!
Use the Troubleshooter. Either click through from the “internet” symbol bottom right corner of screen - or type Troubleshoot internet connections in the windows search box. It’s somewhere in control centre from memory
It can sometimes fix/reset things. My last Dell needed the WiFi adaptor resetting towards the end of it’s life
Having had a day off from this yesterday I have been having another go. So I unplugged absolutely everything and left it overnight, and bought it a brand new ethernet cable this morning. Even tho’ that doesn’t seem to be the issue it was by way of appeasing the computer gods
So turned it all back on and just as before. And started working through list of things to try. Ran troubleshooter - no change. flushed DNS - no change
Then restarted in safe mode - whatever that is. Which did connect to internet 
.
So restarted as normal and it does seem to be functioning. 
why? I know I should just be grateful that it is functioning and get on and prepare the accounts for deadline in 10 days.
But what did this do, why did it help and can I trust it not to fall apart again in when I next start it?
Any clues?
And thanks to all for moral support…
Safe mode starts with minimal drivers and no applications. I wonder if a driver may have been reset in some way.
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Indeed. I think it also starts with a set of generic drivers for lots of different hardware. These are simple drivers that can work with lots of different hardware rather than the more fully featured manufacturers drivers. Using this may have reset something in the registry or somewhere else that was causing the manufacturers driver to malfunction.
In this case, the malfunction happening when it did may have just been a coincidence.
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Worth going into device manager and making sure everything shows up as it should and there are no missing drivers.