Why is my laptop connected to the wireless butI am unable to use the IE or any messenger?

I recently bought a Compaq Laptop (Vista) and tried to get it to connect to the wireless. It did, but i am unable to use any internet browser. It just says "IE cannot display the webpage". Also, i cannot sign into my MSN messenger (i installed it when i LAN my laptop)

I have 2 laptops and one PC connected to the wireless and they work fine. All 3 are working on Windows XP. This is my first Vista and i am pretty new to the program. Anyone able to help me?

Why is my laptop connected to the wireless butI am unable to use the IE or any messenger?windows vista home premium

You are not really connected to your WAN on your Vista (may not have acquired an IP, or has limited connectivity). Try rebooting your WAN connection (modem, router, etc).

Also, mixed WinXp and Vista OS works better with WPA versus WEP.

Make sure your router settings match with both the Vista computer and your other computers.

Try setting up your WAN from scratch if all solutions fail. Log in through the router setup interface and make sure it matches the settings set by Windows for you WAN on all wireless computers.

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getting rid of vista: not an option for some of us. I did buy a gateway after all my custom/assembled PC started dying out part by part. It came with vista, I tried to roll back to XP. I ran into a lot of issues (some of the drivers available for some hardware were vista-only). Finally gave up and reinstalled Vista, very upset about it, hate this thing. :) getting to love the silly gadgets though.

Why is my laptop connected to the wireless butI am unable to use the IE or any messenger?ie tab internet explorer

Disconnect your connection, then reconnect.

That is sort of odd that it won't work. :/

If your connection says "Limited Connection", then you're not going to get access to the net. Like I said, disconnect and reconnect. Its all I can think of.
Check the connection settings and see if you're set up to do DNS through the router. Also make sure it's set for DHCP (should be by default) if that's what you use on the rest. The gateway should be set to the router or use the default.

Best thing is to take another machine that works, find the network connection info, and compare the two to see if anything is different.

Finally, as a test, turn off your firewall. If it works, then turn it back on and see what you need to allow the Internet to pass through. I doubt this is it, because Vista wouldn't sell very well if no one could use the Internet right away.
You need to call tech support for the wireless. My mother had one for an old dinosaur computer in the guest room. It worked fine.She has only had it about 1 yr. I brought her an upgraded used puter that was much better than the old one and the wireless would not connect to the internet even though it showed it was working properly. It turned out that the wireless was too old for the newer computer so the company linksys is sending her a newer one. This maybe your problem or your wireless is not set up for vista.
Get rid of Vista and go back to XP.