Laptop no longer connects to the Internet

Our Toshiba laptop with Vista one day stopped connecting to the Internet.
The wireless still connects to the router with an excellent signal.
But it IE7 says “address not valid” no matter what address I put in the address bar. I also installed Firefox to see if it would work but it also does not connect.
All other computers using the same router connect to the Internet fine
I even clicked “restore defaults” in IE7 and I also tried to connect to the router with an Ethernet cable but even that did not work.
Thanks for any help

Double check and make sure you are getting a valid IP address from the router.

Thanks for the reply
Here is the IP address, it dosen't look right. Why is the word (preferred) next to the IP address


DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.52.100.229(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, November 18, 2008 12:44:38 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:44:37 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.52.10.10
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.52.10.125
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 198.111.56.14
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Vista is IPv6 capable, it is just letting you know you are preferring to use IPv4 instead.

From that machine can you ping the Default Gateway IP and the DNS Server IP?

No, it says no "request timed out"
This looks like a firewall problem, but I turned off the firewall.
what else could it be
I also reset TCP/IP and Winsock
"Netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt"
"Netsh WinSock Reset"

Login to the router and make sure it is getting valid info from your ISP.

I can't even ping the local ip address

Here is a trick from most ISP's.

1. Shut down the laptop
2. Unplug the router
3. Unplug the moden
4. Wait 60 seconds
5. Plug in modem
6. Wait about a minute or two
7. Plug in router and wait for it to finish loading
8. Turn on laptop

This usually works but I cannot guarantee it.

First of all I'm going to assume that your router is connected to the internet at your university in Michigan? I'm not convinced that DNS server is the correct DNS server. For starters there's only one, where typically there's at least two. For the record your school is on Merit network, http://www.merit.edu or http://www.merit.net

I'm not convinced 198.111.56.14 is their DNS server. First of all ping times out for me on that IP also Second, Merit has three DNS servers:
DNS2.MERIT.NET 198.109.64.250
DNS1.MERIT.NET 198.108.1.43
DNS3.MERIT.NET 207.72.112.10

Those all work.
I'm also wondering what/where exactly is your DHCP server? I would think that your IP address is being assigned by your router, in which case, I don't understand why your DHCP server has a different IP address than your Default Gateway. The gateway should be the router, and The DHCP server and default gateway IP should be the same.

Off topic I find Merit Networks, Inc quite fascinating. A non-profit ISP that is there to soley support Michigan's universities? That's pretty darn cool if you ask me.
http://www.isp-planet.com/business/2007 ... twork.html

It still does not work

Get on a computer that is working through the router and connecting to the internet just fine. Preferably one with vista also. Run your IPConfig and compare and post the differences. I'm also wondering why you're only being assigned a 4 hour lease. Is that something new with Vista?

Opps, my fault, instead of using my router, I’m connecting to the universies free WiFi.
This is the free WiFi that the universities and community libraries offer. we were actual suppost to get free Wifi in the whole county but they stopped when the economy went bad.
http://www.oakgov.com/wireless/faq/

I believe it’s because we are on the universities Wi-Fi. lots of people come and go constantly. In order to free up the IP addresses.
Especially in libraries and study halls.

The first post was using the Universties Wi-Fi
This is the same PC using our Linksys router. (No Internet)
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DAN-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5006EG Wireless Network Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . xx
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.112(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, November 19, 2008 8:08:42 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:08:41 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 198.111.56.14
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

This is the PC that connects to the Internet
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : HOME
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5004G Wireless Network Ada
pter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xXX
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, November 19, 2008 8:22:17
AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:22:17
AM
This working PC is using a different DNS server.
but if I connect straight to the Universities WI-FI with the working PC I also get 198.111.56.14 DNS and I am able to access the Internet and Ping the 198.111.56.14 DNS server successfully. On the PC that does not connect, I cannot ping anything.

Thanks for your help

Well your computer appears to be able to communicate with your router and your wifi access points just fine or it wouldn't update your TCP/IP properties.

Can you ping other computers connected to the router?
Check any Firewalls for blocked internet traffic?

I still can't ping 198.111.56.14 I get timeouts.
Can you ping the three Merit DNS servers I posted earlier by IP Address and get replies? If so switch your DNS server settings from automatic and manually add those three and see what happens. Actually I would try that whether you can ping them or not