first let me say hello all, before I break into my begging for help I have had this problem for the best part of 10 months and seriously stressed out now
my problem is:-

my system consists of the following,
desktop computer, ethernet connection, WinXP, AOL9, IE6,
speedtouch 576 wireless router.
notebook 1 wireless connection Win XP, AOL 9, I.E. 7,
Notebook 2 wireless connection Win XP, AOL9, I.E. 7,

what happens is this, AOL will enable me to view web pages and some media content, the usual error message tells me that I am not connected to the network.
Internet explorer says page cannot be displayed.
Anti virus data base is out of date.
windows update will not work thro' IE.
media content cannot be displayed.
file share software will not access the internet.
no other application can access the internet.
all error messages suggest that no connection to internet exists.

however the 2 laptops have been taken to my wife's workplace where they both work perfectly well with no alterations to any settings. the broadband here is provided by BT.

I have spoken at length to speedtouch tech help and even renewed the router, also I have tried a different router yet still this does not work.
I have been to aol live help more times than I can remember and repeated over and over again the problem I am having, I have explained that the problem is the same on each computer so do not believe it is in my settings, however I have gone through the motions with technical help, we have checked all I.E. settings, rebuilt AOL adapter, even reloaded Aol which is a big inconvenience, we have "pinged address's" the result is the same every time, 100% loss
could the problem be with BT as they provide the line?
approx 10 mths ago when the problem first started I found something to do with panda software on my desktop computer, finding this strange it was removed and at last all services resumed I now had a full broadband service.
this service lasted for approx. 3mths then it started again, this time i scoured all computers for stray software all to no avail, the exact same problem was back, so again the visits to live help and voice help started again and there was no fixing the problem,
I have rewired completely the telephone system of my property, out of curiosity when I had finished I tried I.E. to see if I could display a page and it did, my system worked again, maybe I had a fault on my old phone wire, and the first time when we thought it was the panda software it was a mistake,
approx. 30 days ago it stopped yet again, this time as before I felt i could solve the problem so I disconnected all other phone points in the house and connected the desktop to just the incoming line however this time there is no difference.
so back to aol support again yet still no solution,
I have tried to get BT to test my incoming line to ensure that there is no fault, they refer me to AOL, Aol have now said that I have to go to microsoft as it is an issue for them.
I am at a complete loss.
I have run Ipconfig/all but to be honest the information does not tell me anything that I understand,
I hope I have made my problem clear and pray that you may be able to sort it out many thanks in advance cheeqy.

I assume you have DSL (or ADSL to be correct). I had major problems with my Internet connection out home a few moths ago. All of a sudden all my computers started losing Internet connection on and off. I went out of town for a few days and nobody at home could use Internet while I was gone. I came back, fixed the problems, but it kept happening again and again. Meanwhile I had bought a new multi-set wireless phone for the house. There was too much noise on the wireless phone (2.4 GHz) I returned it. I bought another wireless phone, this one worked a little bet better but once in a while there was some annoying screaming sound on the phone when we were using it. And of course the internet connection problems where still threre. One night I was on the phone, and my son was on internet, I heard the screaming noise again. All of a sudden it clicked in my mind that my problems started when I bought the new wireless phone. I immediately went and checked the filter that had come with my DSL package, sure enough, when I removed the old phone and connected the base station of the new phone to the phone line, I connected the DSL portion of the filter to the phone base unit, instead of the phone Port to phone line (and DSL port to DSL modem). I switched the port on the filter and all my connection problems, including noise on the phone line went away. No connection problem since then. I do not know about your set up at home, but you mentioned phone line. One thing you can do, if you are using DSL, make sure you are using filters, and make sure the filter is connected properly. If you have not already done that, that should only take a few minutes of additional checking on the top of what you have already spent.

Originally Posted by cheeqy

what happens is this, AOL will enable me to view web pages and some media content, the usual error message tells me that I am not connected to the network.
Internet explorer says page cannot be displayed.
Anti virus data base is out of date.
windows update will not work thro' IE.
media content cannot be displayed.
file share software will not access the internet.
no other application can access the internet.
all error messages suggest that no connection to internet exists.

however the 2 laptops have been taken to my wife's workplace where they both work perfectly well with no alterations to any settings. the broadband here is provided by BT.

could the problem be with BT as they provide the line?

The problem seems your filter here. They are the first things to replace with another one. A few months at best is what they last for doing well, and after that they will make you lose a net connection if not replaced.

Do this: Restart your system, and then press F8 immediately after the first black screen (POST) has been shown. It should give you a screen with startup options, one of which is Safe mode with Networking. Choose that with the arrows and hit enter. Try running the Internet now.