My computer is having problems?

A couple days ago I noticed that my desktop computer strangely lost its internet connection. I have a wireless netgear router hooked up to it. The lights on the router were all on except for the ethernet cable that connected it to the computer. After a little bit of playing detective, I realized that the ethernet "port" (I think is what it is called) was not working. I tried a couple ethernet cords I knew worked and plugged both ends of the cord into the router. This made the lights come on again. I had a usb wifi adapter in my basement that I hooked up for internet access. About the same time, my sound went out. I don't have speakers because it was playing out of my monitor. Now I am starting to wonder if these two happenings are connected. I have tried quite a few solutions I found online like changing things in the control panel but to no avail. Any one have suggestions?