I have 2 PCs one dual-boots Vista/XP the other is Vista only. The first connects directly to a cable modem (Motorola Surfboard) via an ethernet connection and through an ethernet switch to the second PC. The first machine works fine on the Internet from either Vista or XP and connects locally to the 2nd machine via the LAN. I could not get the 2nd machine to connect to the Internet via the LAN when the 1st machine was also running Vista but it worked fine when the 1st machine was running XP. To get around this, I installed a Netgear WGR614 router and connected both machines to it. This worked for the 1st machine, but the 2nd machine although connecting to the Internet was very slow, many sites timing out. This was not very satisfactory, so now I have reverted to the first option above, removing the Router and once more connecting via machine 1 - Now although machine 1 is fine, machine 2 will ping the internet OK, it will also run the P2P program Limewire fine (enter Elvis and you get hundreds of listings of Elvis records) and it will connect to www.google.com, so the connection is fine. However these are the only things that appear to work, no other web sites are visible (not even our ISPs site). I can not understand why this is now happening as I did have it working at least via the XP machine, settings are the same, I wrote them down as I had to manually configure the TCP/IP settings. Any ideas? Mike.

Did you check the security settings of the browser on the second machine? I noticed, out of the box (figuratively speaking), IE7 installs with the second highest security features enabled. In order to avoid having to add every single website I surfed at to the trusted sites list, I kicked down the security settings a notch.

I have the same problem, searching for a solution ...

The problem is not likely to be the router. If you have an onboard network adaptor, turn it off in the BIOS on your second machine. Install a used PCI NIC like a Realtek, D-Link or Linksys. There are native 32 and 64 bit drivers in Vista for them. Your connectivity will improve (remember to move your CAT5E cable from the onboard conector to the one on the PCI card - I was delayed briefly because I forgot). Then wait for new Vista drivers for your onboard adaptor. It'll be an easy wait, because Vista runs like an antelope when it isn't struggling with TCP connectivity. Also check device manager to make certain your are running only one NIC.

Thanks Denwilgor, After I installed the Vista RC1, I also changed the Ethernet card to a Realtek and everything now works fine. Thank you for your suggestion. Mike.