I'd also like to know if anyone has figured this out. My daughter is at college and the Vista laptop that we sent with her just did the same thing. She is connected with a strong signal, but her browsers (IE and Firefox) don't work. She can use IM and other apps that don't go through her browser. It is like this on both the school's wireless network and when she's hardwired. She brought it home and it was the same on my Linksys wireless at home. I checked all the settings and everything seems right. This has Brown's IT group stumped. They said they have seen this before and some of them just start working.