Sony vaio wireless can not find DNS server, workgroupNG

Bought my wife a Sony Vaio VGN-NW220f for Christmas and it's wireless IF has had a series of problems, some probably caused by me trying to learn / network System 7 to existing peer-to-peer network that includes XP pro and XP64bit workstations. I also replaced/upgraded my ancient wireless router to a new Linksys/CISCO WRT-320N wireless router ("N" wireless with 4port gigabit switch...). My current status is:

1. Upgraded firmware in router to latest version (v103).
2. Upgraded latest Sony wireless driver
3. Wireless will connect to lan, but will NOT connect to internet (7 mumbles something about not being able to find the DNS server).
4. Firewall is turned off.
5. All bloatware I can find has been removed, including Sony's wireless connect sw.

It's been quite a while since I had to wade thought LMHOSTS and ROUTE tables but is sure looks like a software prob to be. BTW, I have an old XP box with an ancient "B" wireless card in it and it connected perfectly. I have also experimented with installing and uninstalling IP6, which has been the source of similar probs in a mixed Vista / XP environments to no avail... Help! (PS, thanks in advance for any words of wisdom)

At the command prompt of the problem Sony machine, right click small icon and run as admin, You can try IPconfig /release and IPconfig /renew to see if the IP releases and you should get a DHCP IP from the router. Norton can also cause this problem to occur, uninstalling the 30 day free trial of Norton would be worth trying.

Sony also uses what they call a smart wi connection utility software that you may need to access or update in order to get the connection working.

Check these drivers to make sure you have all the ones regarding wifi.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu...?mdl=VGNNW220F

Hey Chev65, tks for the advice. Interestingly, at the cmd line level ipconfig /release does not work as it says the media is disconnected. Looking at the wireless IF at the system 7 GUI level, it says it is connected... Also, silly me, I actually bought another Linksys / CISCO slick-looking "feature-rich" router )WRT-320) without cking the reviews. There are a zillion intensely negative reviews of its predecessor, the WRT-310, so I am beginning to suspect the router, though I had workgoup networking /securty probs before I replaced the router.. also, the wired IF works just fine thru the new router to the web, it's just the wireless in this sony that will not route. Your thoughts?

Also forgot to mention that the first thing I did was remove the norton trial and then reluctantly removed the Sony proprietary smart wifi sw... In theory one would think that hardware would work at the OS level independant of any special vendor sw, but ... also the "7" firewall does not seem to affect this prob

Yes, I have had similar results with both at a client's site yesterday. She had a slightly older Vaio and had purchased the same Linksys router. Everything worked great over there (at least for the time I was there and she isn't ringing my phone off the hook, well, at least not yet...). Think I will take the router back and exchange it as I am within officedepot's 14 day window... back soon

Just spent two hours echatting with Sony support. Have re-installed their wireless lan control software to no avail. They recommended I restart in safe mode but safe mode on this laptop only turns on the wired network connection. Rebooted again, and the wireless worked for about a minute and then dropped out. I suspect the new router given all the bad press about Linksys after CISCO took them over, but I was having this wireless problem with the new laptop with the old router as well. I have also started a thread with Linksys also to no avail.

I now believe the problem has to do with DNS or related name resolution problems. The wireless works on the LAN but not with the WAN. I can recreate a similar condition on any XP box by providing a static IP and NO DNS... Your thoughts?