Linux will access internet but Vista won't

Question

My system is a vanilla desktop circa 2007: Asus PB5 MB, Intel Core 2 Duo, Vista. It worked fine until a Windows update in October; then got "boot mgr missing" errors. I addressed that with helpful advice including a partial (aborted) reinstall. Vista wouldn't let me reinstate user files so I used a Linux boot disk to copy user files from windows.old. Things are almost back to normal except some programs do not appear in menus but can still run (e.g. MS Office). More importantly, neither Firefox nor IE will access the internet. I'm using a 2wire router from my ISP (Bell Canada) with the desktop wired and a wireless laptop. Networking works fine; I can access laptop files from the desktop and vice versa. I can also access the internet from the desktop using the browser on the Linux boot disk, but no internet with Vista, even with Vista firewall turned off (and I get Windows Defender error messages on reboot).

I"m trying to avoid a complete reinstall of all programs. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

a couple of questions...
1)does the wireless actually connect? do you get an ip address?
if the answer is yes move on to 2...if not, uninstall and reinstall wireless drivers and tcp/ip components

2)can you ping the gateway? how about www.google.com or 8.8.8.8?
if yes on the gateway, continue
if no, go to troubleshooting step from 1)

if yes on 8.8.8.8 continue
if no, you can hit the router, but not the internet......
check default gateway settings, if correct reinstall tcp/ip

if yes on google.com continue
if no, correct your DNS problem

if still not browsing, check proxy settings and full virus scan.
if still not browsing, reinstall browsers.