I recently restored my laptop to the out-of-the-box state. Everything works fine at first but after i install a few programs (Microsoft Office and such) I begin to get a limited or no connectivity error. I have cable internet and I connect through a wireless linksys router. All other computers on my network connect just fine. Wiring directly into the router also does not allow a connection.

What did you use to restore the laptop? Are there any red or yellow marks in the device manager? How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

i used the restoration disk that was included with the laptop. the device manager says that everything is working properly

Did you forget to enter the encryption key? Open the router interface to check. How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

If you have configured everything correctly, then most likely winsock catalog is corrupted, you can test to use winsockfix to solve this problem.