Connected to Internet but browsers won't load pages

I'm using a Dell inspiron 1420 laptop w/ an Intel wireless wifi link 4965AGN. I'm running vista home basic 32bit. My laptop is connected to the network w/ Internet access & a good - very good signal strength. I can download windows updates, but none of my browsers (firefox or ie8) will load any pages. I checked my drivers & they are all up to date. I haven't made any changes in my settings but now I keep getting this prob

Hi, click on "tools" and check if it not set to "work Offline" Also go to "tools" "options" under connection tabb > lan settings check if it set to get an ip and dns address by default..

I double checked to be sure that I didn't have "work offline" checked, which I didn't. However thru some more searching on these forums I stumbled across a reply to a similar post which came from you. In the reply you instructed the user to imput a series of 'netsh' comands in the cmd prompt. I did as you instructed and sure enough it fixed my problem. I just wanted to thank for trying to help me directly & helping me indirectly. I kno where to come next time I have an issue that I can't correct myself.

Cheers!

ohh thats good.. i was surely going to get there but yea that could have taken a while as to assess your issue and recommend that fix..

cheers
Ash