I have two laptops which appear to have the same internet settings. When we go to internet cafes, we have different results. My wifes new vaio seems to log into any network and mine seems to like linksys. recently I connected a wireless router to my broadband access and got both laptops to connect to google just fine. Somehow when I ticked the box turning on the windows firewall i received a message from norton antivirus asking if I would prefer norton to give the firewall protection. I said yes and have not been able to get in since.

I get the message "page cannot be displayed".

I am an absolute novice but I did run cmd, ipconfig and was able to establish that my ip address and default gateway were different. does that matter?

The pc shows it is connected to my wireless but I cannot browse.

where do I begin?

It is normal for your IP address and default gateway to be different!

From what you described I am almost positive that your firewall settings are causing the problem. I'd make sure that both your Norton Firewall and Windows Firewall are off. Your router and modem have built in firewalls which should protect you from most threats. The most common issue computers face is spyware (somewhere around 90% are infected), but thats a whole other story.

Click Start
Go to Control Panel (or settings > Control panel)
Double click windows firewall
Make sure it is set to off

I'm not 100% sure on Norton but try
-Double Clicking the Norton Icon
-Look for "configure" or "settings" and select that
-You will have to permanently turn off the firewall, usually Norton will turn it back on in an hour or until you restart.

Let me know if that helps!

just remove norton. it's the worst thing to have, when you need to work.