Connected to wireless network, can't go on any sites.?

I'm running a wireless network. The computer the network is setup on is a gateway, running windows vista home premium. It's connected with my sister's older hp, running windows xp. She's receiving the signal through a linksys compact wireless-g usb adapter (if that's of any importance). Today my sister reported not being able to go on any sites, so I went to check out if everything was connected right. It showed the signal strength was excellent, but when I opened up IE 7, I couldnt go to any sites. Same deal with firefox. I checked the packets that were being received, and sent. Little activity going on there. When I clicked repair connection, it said that there is no problem with the connection. A few days earlier it was running extremely well. I'm a noob to these kinds of thing, however the whole connection was setup by a hired professional.

Usually even if your computer's wireless card shows signal available ( connected ) but you can't access the internet, is due to mistyping of ip addresses.

Please cross check the Default Gateway & Dns Server Ip Address of her computer.
if the ip's are fine check with you can ping a website (server) or not :

1. goto run
2. type CMD
3. write down ( ping www.yahoo.com ) ENTER

once you enter if you recieved replies then it means that your internet connection is working, else if you get request timed out or destination host not reachable message then it means that no connectivity to outside network.

what will happen if your ip address settings are correct, then still there is one more option you have to cross check, that is called Proxy Setting =>

1. open internet explorer
2. click on tools menu
3. select internet options
4. select CONNECTION tab
5. select LAN Settings


you will see a page which contains connection details,
here if the first option called ( automatically detect proxy settings ) is selected then deselect and also deselect everthing else and then press ok and try checking your internet , else if the first option and the remaining options are not at all checked , then SELECT the first option ( tick mark AUTOMATICALLY detect my proxy setting ) and then select ok and close , now your internet connection has to start working.

if incase it doesn't work, then it means you have almost done everything , keep on trying renewing the ip address, and changing the name and checking the system recent ERRORs ( from event viewer) ....

all the best

There could be several problems, first, can you connect to the internet without using the router? That is, can you connect an ethernet cable directly to her computer? If you can connect to the internet this way, the problem is in your router settings. If not, contact your ISP. Hope this helps.

Go to both machines and in the run type cmd to open a window. In that window type ipconfig /all. Compare the settings. If there is not a static IP set from the router, it will be something like 192.168.1.10X with X between 0 and 9. Also compare the DNS settings. If your sister used her system elsewhere, there is a good chance the DNS is stuck. You can go into network device properties and TCP properties to change them to automatic which will then get them from the router.If this doesn't work, e-mail me and I will give you other ideas.