internet not connecting

Was not sure wether to put this post in mallware or networking
If an administrator thinks this post is in the wrong forum
please let me know if i can/should re-post.


Windows 98 SE
DSL
D link wired router
800 cpu

Hi i'm robert, a student from Canada.

My Pc simply isn't connecting to the internet and I'm at a loss
for what to do. I'm posting this from an internet cafe. Last
week the same thing happend, but it seemed only Firefox
wasn't connecting...After using EI 6 for a bit Friefox then
worked. But a week has gone by and now both aren't connecting.

I have scanned my Pc with both SPybot and AVG 7.5 (free) they
both found nothing, although they both cited "errors" with
reading certain things??? My defs on AVG are only 11 days old.
While at this internet cafe I will try and get some
virus-updates burned to install manually. But...in the mean
time, because i am bussing back and forth downtown to this cafe
I could use as much info or things to try on each stop.

If anyone could post any Ideas in the mean time that would
be very helpful. For those who are familiar ,there is this
"E3" connvention about video games starting on monday and my
internet could not have cut out at a worse time! boo!

Could my connectiom settings in fire fox have been changed
somehow?
Would re-installling my browser help?

A bit more info (if your still reading)....

I tried to boot into safe mode and I couldn't scroll down to
chose "Safe Mode" at that menu you get from holding down ctrl
during start up. Weird.

In the access Manager for my modem there is all this TCP stuff
and configuration stuff...i never
changed it so i'm assuming it's the same as it was before.
anything to look out for?

Have used CrapCleaner and this "clean up" program.
Deleted cache in fire fox
Defraged using Diskkeeperlite.
Tried turning off the firewall (zonealarm)

Also , before the most recent connection problems I THINK I had
left my pc on and then came back the next day to see it had
been rebooted, finding the 'login box' on screen. It had been
raining during the night. Maybe there was a power outage that
restarted the pc and screwed up the connection setting? Could
a virus restart a PC? ( but maybe I had powered down the PC
with 'restart' checked by accident, and was so tried that i
don't remember) .

Thank you very much for your time.