A little over a week ago, I downloaded an update to the free firewall program Zone Alarm. After doing that, the software's "True Vector" program stopped working on my PC stopped working. I'm running Windows Vista Home Basic.

Using my laptop, I researched on their website bulletin boards and found that I needed to uninstall the program, but the usual way wasn't working because the True Vector kept stopping. In Safe Mode, I was able to delete most (if not all) of the Zone Alarm and True Vector files, emptied the Recycling Bin and restarted. The Zone Alarm was gone, but my internet wouldn't work at all (prior to this, it would work occasionally until True Vector stopped).

When I run Windows Network Diagnostics, it tells me "the network adapter 'Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC' is experiencing driver or hardware related issues." Above that it says "The network adapter 'Local Area Connection' is not correctly configured to use the IP protocol."

Using a flash driver, I updated the driver for the Realtek, but that didn't solve the problem. I've searched high and low on the internet, read and re-read the Zone Alarm board (one "guru" there simply regurgitates ZA's plan and then throws up his hands and says it's hard to diagnose a computer from afar - yes, I know they're volunteers and I know that's a true statement).

I know many folks on here are very tech savvy, so I thought I'd toss it out here to you all to see if anyone has any ideas.

I know the network card is working because this laptop is connecting to the network, as is my daughter's computer upstairs.

Help!