I can connect to the net but nothing - IE or programs that use the net works. IE just shows "This page cannot be displayed" for evey page I try and things like MSN Messenger they just display the messages that would appear if there were no connection present. I had just restarted my machine before I got the message (it had been on for a while) and I had cleared the recycle bin a bit before that (as well as removing all the "norton protected files") but I wasn't aware of placing anything too imprtant in the recyle bin in the first place. The net works fine on other machines so its not a problem there. Any ideas on how to sort this??

Jim, There could be many reasons for this behavior, the simplest is clear your tmep internet files. This Microsoft site has many more possible solutions. hth shep

if you have a cable connection you should check the actual wire to see that nothing is screwy otherwise, make sure you have no viruses and perhaps your cookies folder got messed up...