This is a new computer and I have never used a 64bit computer. I was told to use the IE+86 browser to be able to run 32bit stuff (like flash players) but it wont connect to any severs. what do I do?

I have never posted before thanks.

Do you have Internet access?

From a COMMAND PROMPT, run "IPCONFIG /ALL" and paste the output here. From the same prompt, run "PING WWW.CNN.COM", paste the output here.

In IPCONFIG output, what is important are these lines

---------------
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.103(Preferred) <-- Note, I'm behind a ROUTER so this is a PRIVATE address
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 <-- My Router address
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
65.32.5.111
-----------------

CNN doesn't respond to PING's, but the output should look like this :

-------------------
Pinging www.cnn.com [157.166.255.19] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
------------------
The first line shows the IP address and that there is access to a DNS Server.

If you have matching data like this, then I'd suspect your FIREWALL... If you have one, check its settings. You could even 'disable' it and see if you can get out to rule it out (Windows does have one by default). If you have a 3rd party firewall, it could be interacting with the Windows Firewall and even DEFENDER. If you have an Anti-virus program, both the Windows Firewall and Defender can be disabled, that might also fix the problem.

Irv S.

try putting the ip's in IE x86 and see if it will connect.

Well, you are getting out then.

To run the X86 version of IE use the START MENU, ALL PROGRAMS. Scroll to the top and you'll see IE selections, the second is the 64 bit version. Web pages will/may look different and the FLASH pages will not work.

At this point, it is quite possible you have some MALWARE on the system. Some shutdown Inet access so you can't clean them up?

A few things you could try, not sure any would work though.

See if you can RE-INSTALL just IE but that could be hard without Inet access?
Re-install Vista 'in place' and see if that cleans it up?
Use another computer and get some A/V, Adware, and Malware programs and run them?

One LAST thing to check, are you WORKING OFFLINE? If so, it could be the cause? Pulldown TOOLS and see if WORK OFFLINE is checked?

Irv S.