Then, he went into the hosts file and now I have these entries there:
hosts (C:\Windows\system 32\drivers\etc)
hosts (C:\i386)
hosts.incorrect (C:\documents and settings\recent)
hosts.new (C:\documents and settings\recent)
hosts.old (C:\documents and settings\recent)
Then he suggested that I uninstall Norton Antivirus because of compatability issues. I also have Adaware SE, Spybot and AVG. By the way, these scans are all clean, and it hasn't been that long since I ran hijack this and checked to make sure everything was ok. I uninstalled Norton, and bingo, now there is absolutely no connection to the internet (I am writing from my laptop on the same connection). I checked to make sure there were no norton leftovers in the dns and ?netb? settings and they only had what they were supposed to have.
How can I get my connection to the internet back (even if it was crappy!) first, then can I get some guidance on fixing the on and off connectivity issue??
TIA