[judo]

sbc yahoo dsl service - new install
Pro (1.5-3.0)
2Wire Homeportal 1000Hw
HP pavilion desktop - windows xp
dell laptop - windows xp

First time poster. Know next to nothing about computers. Huge problem. Just signed up for sbc yahoo dsl service, have had it less than a week. Service start date was 9-20-06. Speed package: Pro (1.5-3.0) 1 desktop computer using ethernet, 1 laptop connected wirelessly. No separate router. Both running windows xp, both internet explorer 6.0. Modem is 2Wire HomePortal 1000HW running off a single splitter. My roommate used to have yahoo dsl so we're using his old modem. Called sbc yahoo and over the phone, went thru registration, got connected and everything appeared to be ok. The laptop connection is great. But my desktop is not.

I'm online. I can browse and search, and download, for the most part. But when I go to certain pages, like my yahoo or hotmail email, I can open exactly one email and then it seems to lock up. The only button that will work is the browser's back button. It just freezes as if it's busy loading, and if I leave it there, eventually "Page cannot be displayed" pops up. I don't understand this at all. Plus, when i try to update my anti-virus or anti-spyware definitions, it gives me an error message saying "connection cannot be established". Went to microsoft.com to do diagnostic check and to get IE 7.0, but they won't validate my copy of windows because, you guessed it, "connection cannot be established". But somehow I'm online? I used to have WOW broadband on my desktop, using the same exact settings, with no issues at all. I have tried everything I can think of. Cache is clear, cookies accepted, firewalls off. Even found a tip in one of the forums about changing internet protocal lan settings from "obtain ip address automatically" to a dummy ip and subnet address. Don't know if that pertained to me, but I tried it anyway and it didn't work, IE wouldn't connect at all. Also tried downloading and installing firefox and netscape. When opened, both display an error message similar to "unable to connect to server".

SBC said connection was fine on their end & it must be my computer settings. They could do no more. What can I do? How do I fix it? Did I break the internet? If you need any technical info I will do my best to answer. Keep in mind I'm not really computer language savvy. Please help if you can, any advice would be greatly appreciated.