I can be connected to the internet (i.e. surfing, emailing) and suddenly loose my connection. I can then ping sites but not be able to access via IE or Firefox. I am running Vista and CA Firewall. I have had the problem on multiple networks. I have DSL at home and connect wireless to the network. When this occurs my wired machines still work fine. Any suggestions?

A dns issue? Might see what the dns settings are on the wired machines. See also event viewer. When then happens try command line nslookup www.FQDN and see what happens. Might have to put the local routers ip address in for the dns instead of the isp's number.

I always suggest that people put their favorite search engine's ip in the hosts file. They can always get to that search site and use it's ability to act as a dns server.

Get a good web blocking hosts file too.

Still could be some issue with a few other things.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.