Connected but can't view any sites!

[Nic]

OK I'm sorry if this is in the worng place but since I'm not sure what the problem with my PC is, I didn't know where to post it!

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop with Windows Vista (Just the one that came with the computer...) and I know I'm connected to the internet because my Google desktop thing is able to tell me the weather and I can log into msn. I also connect using a wire from my router so I assume that means a strong internet connection. I can open Internet Explorer but I only ever get the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" and this is true of whatever website I'm trying to view.

This all seemed to happen after I installed an update to Flashplayer - maybe it's just a coincidence though. But on the offchance I uninstalled that then when that didn't work I tried loads of other things - I've reset Internet Explorer, Unistalled my antivirus, uninstalled some unnecessary programs and done a couple of system restores.

The first time I did a system restore the internet worked properly but as soon as I tried to download another antivirus (Avira) and restarted my computer it had stopped working again. Since then I've done two more system restores trying to get back to where it worked but now I get five error messages when I switch my computer on so I'm a bit scared to do any more without knowing if it'll help.

I don't know if it's part of the problem but one of the error messages that now comes up says "Dell wireless WLAN card wireless network tray applet has stopped working" which I'm guessing is about the internet? there's other ones too about various things - I can list them if you need that.

Someone suggested trying to start my computer in safe mode but I can't figure out how as I thought I had to press F12 when I started it up but I can't find anything there... I was also thinking about maybe downloading another internet browser on this computer, putting it on USB and trying to get it on my laptop but is it worth it?

Moved home a month ago and since then I've only been able to view websites for any length of time once (the first time) and since then it's been rubbish and I'm getting very frustrated!

Any suggestions for what I can do to fix this internet would be much appreciated but I am honestly a complete idiot when it comes to computers so if there's things I need to do I'd be REALLY grateful if you could explain them like you'd explain them to someone really dense. Because I am.

Thanks,

Nicola x

[Techmonkey]

Wow Nicola you have got yourself in a pickle.

Also :welcome

Soooo to summarise you cannot view webpages and you are receiving multiple erros on startup after many system restores.

Ok first things first let check your theory that you are connected to the web.

On your keyboard press the Windows Key (between the left hand CTRL and ALT keys) and the letter R together.

This will bring up the run box, now type cmd and click OK

You are now in the command prompt. Type:

ping http://www.vitalsecurity.org > c:\techmonkeys.txt

then press enter and when it finishes type:

ping 209.85.227.147 >> c:\techmonkeys.txt

Wait for it to finish now close the command prompt and find the file called Techmonkeys.txt (may just be called Techmonkeys) on your C: drive.

Open it and copy and paste the contents here.