just received my new dell laptop. its running vista, and connected to my wireless network right out of the box. IE and firefox won't connect to internet for some reason. showing I'm fully connected, wireless switch is on, and my firewall allows both IE and firefox....probably something real stupid, but I can't figure it out...all help appreciated. thanks

I had to remove Norton Firewall (and use ZoneAlarm instead) before I could get connected on my Vista laptop. Norton often comes pre-installed on new computers - usually as a suite called Norton Internet Security or the new Norton 360. If you have it, get rid of it all and replace with something else.

If that's not the issue, your router may have security password set for wireless access. If it does, you need to enter that password into your laptop's wireless setup. Usually all you need to do is click your wireless device in "networks found" list, then a box pops up for you to enter the passphrase.

my laptop was bought refurbished, and had no norton or any anti-spyware spyware installed on it...only windows firewall.

my laptop has a wireless switch, which I turned on, selected my network, entered the password, and am connected to my network. however my wireless switch looks like it has light indicator next to it that doesn't go on.

any ideas?

Well, the indicator light should be lit when the wireless switch is in the 'on' position, so I should have it checked by a repair shop.

just got off the phone with comcast and they said that my ip address might be stuck. we tried releasing it an renewing it, and nothing. according to him, with the router not plugged in, and connected just to the modem, I should be getting a different ip address, but I'm not. he basically thinks its a default ip address from dells factory and I don't know what to do....


is this fixable, or do I have to return it to dell?

Did the tech have you do this to flush the DNS cache?

Open a command prompt....from the Start menu, select Run > In the box/"open field", enter cmd.exe

enter ipconfig /flushdns press 'enter'

ill have to check when I get home from work and let u know....thanks

nope...after I flushed it, I ran ipconfig and its still showing the 192.168.100.3. Comcast seems to think its a default IP from dell and we can't figure out how to reset it

Yep, its a "Private Ip Address Lan", also known as a 'black hole'.
I would think that Comcast could get past that by setting you up with a new default ISP # from them....

I think comcast tried to, but no matter what we did, the same "black hole IP" kept showing up. we released it, renewed it, flushed it, and nothing. that's why the comcast tech thought it was stuck and sent me back to dell


anyone have any ideas, or should I send back to dell for a new one?

Looking around, someone said the solution might be here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/09/15/i...t-off-randomly/

Another had this to say:

I thought I uninstalled that driver, but ill try again when I get home. ill post details in a few hours...thanks

after uninstalling the driver, I restarted it and it downloaded the new driver at startup...I reset the router by unplugging it for a few minutes, turned it back on and started the laptop. IE and firefox still won't connect to internet, but my IP address was changed. its now 198.162.0.1, which I remember it being before. so I think we're getting there....now what should I do?

If you have internet security suites closely examine what they are actually doing, a big problem with say norton internet security is that is has its own firewall, spam filter, all this stuff turned on without you really knowing and all this conflicts with the windows firewall etc and creates a big mess. by all means use anti-virus software but avoid using internet security stuff