My laptop Browsers won't connect to the web

Hello, call me Phan.

I have a Dell laptop, windows vista, and I have had it since August. Everything works on it just fine. But yesterday when I turned my laptop on I recieved a few messages I never get. The Dell chat center that automatically comes up and connects to the internet said it could not connect to the internet. That was strange since I was getting a connection and my computer said I was connected. Then I tried to get online and neither Firefox nor IE would load a page. IE says the page cannot be displayed (for every website) and Firefox (my usual browser) will just load a blank page. Thats not all though, when I close the browsers out then I get a pop up message saying "Firefox/IE has stopped working. Check online for a solution? or Close program?" I tried to check online for a solution but nothing happens. Right now I'm on the internet but through the windows help and support. I don't see how it's working but If I try to get online myself I can't. Anything on my laptop that automatically connects to the internet when my computer starts up doesn't work. Like MSN messenger.

So, I have a connection, a strong connection, but nothing is connecting. What's wrong with my laptop? BTW: this is day 2 that it's doing this. Oh, and all the other computers in the house are not having this problem and they are all wireless.