Blocked Acess to Internet

I have been using Win7 for several days now, but about to remove what little hair I have left. So this will be a long history.
Started with Toshiba Notebook 3gb ram, 250gb hd, 512 video Vista Ultimate x32 installed all working no problems, oh lan and wireless working behind a AT&T U-Verse DSL modem.
1. Install went fine, and access to the internet worked initally. In fact all my programs did except Skype was warned it was not compatable by Win7.
2. Next day, over night got a update and noticed that where as i had internet, I only had local. I had turned off the Win7 firewall because I use ESET Security suite that has all that built in. So checked alerts, found it said I had 3 firewalls, 3 spyware, and 2 anti-virus.. WTF? looked at the details and it said McAfee was there.. wow i removed that ages ago..
3. Found a left over folder and removed it, alas I got internet access.
4.Later that day, I had 3 IE8 windows up, one froze.. could not close it. Rebooted, it went away and all was cool.
5. Today again no internet access, only local. noting wired, nothing wireless.. I have turned off and on all kinds of firewalls, disabled anti-virus and anti-spy to no avail. Now here is the wierd part..Sometimes it will show the internet and all as good, but will not pass data. Nada, none. I mess with turning off wireless or the lan, it complains in touble shooting and still no go. then it will go to local only. I can talk to my router, all is ok. I compare ipconfig to my desktop, except for the MAC address all is the same (Vista Ultimate on desktop). I can even share files on the local lan with other pc's... I have it set to work, and changed to home and back to work type of networks.. still no go.. not much hair left.. it seems that the crash of IE8 is the culprit but I tried system restore, no joy it acts the same way. Almost totally bald now.. any ideas to save what is left?

Have you tried pinging to an external site? Have you checked for the other firewalls? You could try disabling all of those and try again.
Edit: Just re-read you post and it seems you have disabled your stuff and tried again. Have you tried ipconfig /flushdns and ipconfig /registerdns?

yes tried flushing, I even tried to use the repair feature on the disk, I forgot to mention that when I logged on to it today, and tired to use IE8, it tired to use the locked up window, and asked if i wanted to restore it or go someplace else, so I chose go someplace else. I have looked at the host files, looked at admin security policy, scrubbed mcafee with their tool to clean its nasty out.. There is a file someplace that stays corupted that manages the flow of data to the internet in getting access that is not replaced on restore or repair..

Ok, in desparation, I removed the Eset Security Suite.. ouch, ever since 2001, I have never had a virus or any crap off the internet using their software. Now I have access to the internet, but will see if it last over night. On the other hand MS has teamed up with AVG, Kaspersky, and Norton to SELL you a version that works with Win7.. not sure I think that should be in a beta release...will check back and see what happens after an overnight sleep. Thanks for the help so far. I have a few strands left...OBTW this is how Win 7 sees my small network.. something called a "switch" is in there,, where?

Many antivirus programs are not compatible, at least yet, with Windows 7.

Most of us use Avast Free Edition for now, and it works fine.