Fixing a network card on Windows 7

The problem;
- Windows 7 computer - cannot connect to wifi connection
- Cannot connect to internet via ethernet cable
- At this point I strongly suspected a hardware failure

 Diagnosing and fixing the problem;

1. Tried letting Windows attempt to fix the wifi and the network card - this did not fix it. Tried going to the network card preferences and it was reporting that is was functioning correctly.
2. Tried disabling the wifi card and the network card and re-enabling the network card - this did not work. To do this right click on my computer and going to hardware/devices.
3. Tried uninstalling the network card (do not delete driver), then searching for it again. It came back and re-installed it. Plugged in the ethernet cable, the system tray was now saying "connected", internet browser wasn't giving anything. So tried run > cmd > ping www.bbc.co.uk and it could ping successfully. The retried browser and it worked
4. Tried re-enabling wifi - unplugged ethernet, wifi still did not work, not even pinging.
5. Tried uninstalling and re-installing the wifi card, after install it said there was a problem, but if quickly fixed itself. Then I was able to connect via the wifi. Note that uninstalling the wifi will mean you will have to re-enter and re-remember your wifi login details. 

Conclusion
So it was a software problem, and re-installing the network card and wifi fixed the problem. Done.