Can not access internet...gateway issue?

[jhen01]

Hi all

I'm using Vista Home Premium and I'm having problems connecting to the internet.

I've recently been reinstalling various copies of windows because I wanted a workable program to burn video dvd's...vistas dvd maker is rubbish. I reverted back to xp but changed my mind as XP began to crash a lot.

So I reinstalled Vista and for a while things were normal in that I could connect to the internet with no problems.

Connecting wirelessly through a Netgear router and have hardly had problems.

Up until last night nothing was wrong. But today after reinstalling Vista yet again to try and resolve my connection issues I've run out of ideas

It actually connects to the wireless...I get the icon on the bottom right and it seems ok. However opening firefox or internet explorer results in "could not find website" message. I try to connect to windows messenger but I get an error code and I troubleshoot...then it mentions something about my gateway being offline. I have no idea what this means I tried the help section in vista and it's useless

I have no idea why I can connect to the wireless internet but can not actually use it as such.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Disk_Contented]

Gateway will be your wireless access device. Modem, or router.

[jhen01]

Ah....

erm, so basically it's a problem with the wireless router not allowing me to use the internet?

I can actually connect to it and I haven't had any problems...would reinstalling windows effect it though? The first time I reinstalled windows XP and Vista it still worked, it was only after reverting to XP and then changing back to Vista did I have problems.

Would reinstalling Vista effect the settings of my router though? As far as I know the I.P address and mac address of my laptop would still be in the routers settings...no?? sorry I'm a bit dumb when it comes to technical stuff

[Disk_Contented]

Have you tried the network setup wizard? It can resolve these sorts of problems if windows doesn't know you are using a remote gateway device.
Windows will connect to it, but not through it.

EDIT: Universal plug'n'play is supposed to avoid these issues. See if it's enabled in the router (UPNP). The respective service must be running on your computer. It should allready be so.

If that effects no change, disable UPNP as an added security measure.

Make sure you have a decent router password, and never use a wireless connected machine without a login password. You are inviting real problems.

If nothing works, you can allways reset the router, though I would power cycle as well, to be sure. Note that all the default settings will be in effect. Password too.