No browser connection but can ping

I am running Windows Vista and typically use Firefox. However, after doing an update to Firefox 3, I lost all connectivity to the internet from both Firefox and IE. My messenger programs (Google Talk and MSN Messenger) are working just fine. I tried several restore points, and none of them worked. I also tried pinging and that worked just fine. My virus scan didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything there.

Any thoughts? My next step is a total reformat, but for obvious reasons, I'd rather not do that.

Thanks in advance!
Trish

 

Uhmm seems funny my windows is doing the same thing, after Firefox 3 was installed no internet.
It took out the network connection altogether and tried restore points and none worked either. Got a network connection back but still no internet on Windows. Good thing I use Ubuntu most of the time on another HDD so can still get where I want to go.
Hopefully someone will get an answer to this problem and lets us know how to fix it.:cry:cry

 

Thanks for the advice, but no luck. I ran CCleaner for both the disk cleanup and the registry cleanup, and nothing helped. I also installed AdAware and it only found some cookies (which I removed). I tried installing Spybot, but it wouldn't install without the internet connection. I also uninstalled my Symantic Antivirus as a just in case, and that didn't work. I am running on a wireless network, so I decided to plug in to see if that helped, but nothing. My router has a firewall, so I tried to take that out of the mix, but when trying to plug directly into the modem, I couldn't get any connection (I'm sure that's user error), but I doubt that firewall is the issue.

A couple of things worth mentioning... When previously on firefox 2.*, I would get notified of a software update to the latest 2.*. After doing that upgrade, I would have the same issue I am having, now. However, using a restore point worked successfully. When I saw Firefox 3 was out I though "Oh, FF must have fixed the Vista connectivity problem", so I installed it. As you know, it's never a good thing to assume. Now my restore points don't work, and I'm stuck in this mess.

Anyway, any other thoughts?

Thanks!
Trish

 

You have to remove firefox3 and instal an older version

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0rc2/releasenotes/

 

I completely uninstalled FF 3, and installed FF 2.0.0.16. After that I totally lost connectivity (i.e. no more pings). I then went back to a restore point, and my machine completely melted down. It would only boot all the way up in safe mode. I finally took the hint and reformatted. Luckily I was able to back up the files I needed.

Thanks everyone for your help. It was worth the try, but in the long run, reformatting was probably the best option.