Can't access the internet most of the time

Hello, I have a Dell Inspirion B130 that I bought about 1 1/2 years ago .When I got it this was my first experience with wireless internet. It immediately picked up several unsecured networks and surfed the web fine. More recently it has started to rarely open the internet, despite showing a "good connection". Other times it is "unable to connect", or "aquiring network address" … basically not working. The same networks show up with good signal as they always have, but won't run like it did.Had a friend tell me it sounded like my wireless modem was taking a dump , idk… thoughts?

Hi, Here's some thoughts for you, on your connection 1 Make sure you are running only one anti virus (resident in memory) as if you have more than this they are likely to quarrel 2 This could be a firewall problem, so if you are operating from behind a hardware firewall ( within a router) then disable your two way software firewall and see if this does the trick. (a reboot may be necessary.) 3 Make sure your Windows firewall is not switched on, as well as a two way software firewall 4 What form of encryption are you using on your wireless broadcast signal? 5 Have you set up your machine with the correct WEP/WPA password? 6 Can you access the Internet using a different browser? 7 Can you access the internet non wirelessly? 8 Have you tried power cycling your router/ modem? 9 Is your wireless adapter card correctly installed, up to date drivers, and no yellow or red flags in Device Manager? Let us know how you go: the make and model number of your Router/modems might help us help you. Regards paws