Hi,
I have a very perplexing problem. For the last 2 weeks, my firefox couldn't browse the internet, so I ignored the problem and used IE7. Yesterday IE7 didn't work either. The interesting thing is that I can:

access and send external email
log on to websites via ftp
log on to aim and skype
can ping my dns via IP address and name
can ping websites such as www.hotmail.com

When I go onto IE7 or firefox, I can't even access my firewall/wireless routher by typing in IP address.

rename your hosts file to hosts.old
disable the windows firewall or other third party firewall.

This is done to determine where the break is.

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

I updated the host file at:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

and disabled the firewall. Still doesn't work.

ping the router or website?

if you ping the router. see the ip for router. if the ip is not stable, i think maybe because host file at system32 folder have problem.

but why do you not reset the wireless router??i think it is easy way.

what do you mean by "I updated the host file" That does not describe a rename.

what router do you have and if you do a ipconfig what is the gateway ip and dns ip?

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

sorry, i meant i renamed the host file.

One other interesting fact. emails w/ embedded images show up fine. seems like it's browser only.

here is my ipconfig /all
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-70-A5-0C-04
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4cc:cdf3:8751:919e%10(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.17(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:38:19 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, December 23, 2007 2:38:14 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 234887792
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I checked the other workstations in my office, and they have the same settings.

Suggest you to reboot that router and DNS server(192.168.0.3), see whether it helps.

Also you can try to use following free DNS servers from Opendns.com on computers, see whether you can use nslookup to resolve domain name correctly and browse Internet after that..

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

If still cannot, most likely there is firewall blocking somewhere, can be on router or computer...