Updated programs and New installs can't connect to the internet

[mskwarcan]

I'm running Vista Home Edition on my HP laptop and over the past couple months whenever I update a program or install a new one I can no longer connect to the internet with it. I run an old version of firefox and if I update it then my internet stops working. IE doesn't work at all and I can run AIM fine, but Yahoo messenger can't detect an internet because I just downloaded it. I am connected wirelessly at home and connected through a cable at work and the symptoms are exactly the same. The new patch for Warcraft 3 just came out and now Warcraft can't detect the internet anymore. If I download the new version of aim, that can't find the internet either. So I started running a virtual machine on my laptop with XP as the OS and I can connect to IE explorer and all internet functions fine on it. I still having trouble running a couple programs in the virtual machine like Warcraft 3 won't work in it but i think that has to do with the virtual machine itself. I have tried a bunch of stuff. I don't have any firewalls running on my computer and no norton antivirus stuff. I even typed in services in the search bar and disabled the windows firewall. Turning on and off the UAC does nothing. Any help would be great.

[Laser]

Go to Control Panel, Network and Sharing Center. Make sure your Network is set to Private. If it's Public click on Customize and switch it to Private.

[mskwarcan]

It's set to private already.