The "Local Area Connection" is experiencing driver or hardware related problems

Hiya, I saw another thread with this title, but it wasn't much help.

I've had my Compaq PC with Windows 7 home for about 6 months, and I last connected to the internet through my Ethernet with no problems, as always, four days ago.

I made no changes then, or since, but now when I try to connect I get the above error message. I've checked the network driver and it says it's up to date.

Any ideas?

Thanks!