Everything seems ok, but still can't connect.

Hi, guys! Been a long time since I've had to come to you. Here's the problem - - got a Dell laptop, running XP Media Center. Connect wirelessly through a Linksys WRT54GL and a Netgear SB6120. Few days ago I ran AVG PC Tuneup 2011. Shortly thereafter, I updated my Comodo firewall. Haven't been able to get on the 'net since. Thinking it had something to do with the aforementioned changes, I undid them. Still nothing. Neither Firefox nor IE will get me on. My little connection icon shows it to be talking with the router, and if I hardwire the laptop to the router, it works fine. I tried all the pinging tests and they worked fine, except for google.com. I'm at my wit's end. I'm hoping one of you can point me in the right direction.
Thanks, in advance.

-Ron-

 

I tried out AVG PC 'Tuneup' a little while ago, I'd suggest you uninstall it, make sure you try to undo any 'tweaks' it made before you do so.

 

Thanks, Satrow. That's the first thing I did. Also forgot to mention in my post that I tried "recycling" the whole system - - down-powering the computers, router and modem. That didn't do the job either. Maybe someone else has some ideas. At this point, I'll try anything.

 

XP can get a little buggy with wireless connections, have you tried removing the old wireless connection and then rebooting?

 

Not sure what you mean by removing the wireless connection. You mean disabling the Network Connections of the offending machine? BTW, I neglected to mention that the Network Connections section of my Control Panel shows 3 devices: Wireless Net Connection, which is the Dell Wireless WLAN Mini-card; Local Area Connection, which is a Broadcom 440x Integrated Controller; and 1394 Net Adapter. All are listed as connected except for the Broadcom Local Area Connection, which shows "Network cable unplugged". But that has always been thus.
Just disabled all of them and rebooted. After re-enabling, attempted to get on the 'net. - - back to square one with the dreaded "Server not found" pop-up.

 

If you call up the main window from the wireless icon, you should be able to disconect from the broken connection and then disable it from connecting automatically. Then (probably after a reboot) you should be able to connect manually.

 

Sorry it's taken so long to respond. Tried that, Satrow; still no go. But I'm convinced the problem is in the laptop, since it connects fine when connected directly to the router. I have the feeling something is misconfigured somewhere.

 

If you have your wireless drivers to hand, you could uninstall the card and the drivers via DevMan, reboot and reinstall the drivers.

 

Problem solved! Strangely enough, I was sure I'd gone through these steps early on in the problem. Anyway, went into "Network Connections", clicked on "local area connection", clicked on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", "Properties", checked the box for "obtain an IP adress automatically" and checked again for "obtain a DNS automatically". Voila! I'm back on the internet and feeling in fine fettle! Thanks for your help! :-D

 

PS - - I love you guys!

 

Excellent, nice work Ron. Sometimes all it takes is to talk through the possibilities