netwrok gone from system prefrences

You could try & start the computer from the Snow Leopard 10.6 install-restore DVD.

From there, you could use Disk Utility from the Installer menu bar, to attempt a repair

of the hard disk drive, or see if there is a problem with the system. Hold C key down

and continue until you finally get the installer. Choose from menu bar options to use

the Disk Utility; try to repair hard disk drive. Then choose to restart from Mac HDD

by use of menu option to select startup disc.

Or perhaps even install a new system while keeping your old user accounts & files.

Even a simple start up in SafeBoot (shift key held down on startup tone, & wait for

evidence of desktop Finder to appear) may help resolve simple interface issues.

However that won't fix hard drive data errors, system damage, or hardware problems.

If you have a backup of your content elsewhere, off the computer, you could try a new

installation on the computer (if hard drive is OK) however if the computer still has an

original hard drive and has several years run-time accumulated, it may be going bad.

Or if you happened to still have the Combo update 10.6.8 file that took the base 10.6.x

to the final version (if you are running what your posted info says) that may be able to

fix the problem you see in the system preference file. And also repair disk permissions.

There likely is a more eloquent method of restoring the appearance of the Network

pane in the System Preferences section of OS X. Could be that it is not missing...

But if there is file damage or sector damage to the hard disk drive, or if the HDD

has been run near full, the file may be gone or overwritten.

To post an image in a discussion, you'd need to save a screenshot to desktop and

then direct the ASC window to get it from there. Or provide a link to another source

online that others can see in their computer, if yours is not able to upload images.

Not sure what is the cause of the problem, but it implies damage files, or errors.

Good luck! 😐

Also, if your computer happens to be running an OS X (ten.something) later than

the one shown in your posts, be sure to correct that information before asking a

question that may not apply should you have upgraded past it...

Usually an older computer that shipped with a system older than Lion 10.7, also

had install-restore DVDs included; so Snow Leopard 10.6 would be expected to

have those and they are the best and easiest path to restore a Working system.

However if you had, say Mountain Lion 10.8.5 in your Mac, and had upgraded

to get it, a different path to try & fix that system may include using Recovery mode

and a keyboard shortcut on startup would allow you to enter into OS X Utilities,

that could run from the Recovery partition that a later OS X installs for this use.

From there, an independent version of Disk Utility not in your regular system,

can be used to perform variety of tasks, to include major items such as reformat.

So, if your computer was no longer running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, the system DVD

for that installation could be used to attempt to repair the hard drive; but ideally if

you don't need to restore the computer to original and there are no other major

issues with the way it works, you could try the Recovery mode in the later OS X.

•OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

This can also be used to help restore from a Time Machine backup, with a later

OS X than Lion; so long as the Recovery partition (not part of Lion, directly)

was installed in the computer system. Later versions add it automatically.

Anyway, not sure how - or if - this additional info will help you.

At any rate, good luck in this matter! 🙂