Networking

My thinkpad has been giving me the message every time I try to get on the internet cable or wireless, ‘little or no connectivity’. It says it needs to renew my IP address. When it trys to renew my IP address I get the message saying it was unable to do it. When I look at the lOCAL AREA CONNECTION STATUS in the Activity part the only number that moves is Sent packets and ‘Received packets number stays on zero. I am unable to figure out the problem or the solution to my problem. Can’t figure out if it is a hardware or software problem?