Vista - Just about to give up and cry...

Ok, title is a bit exaggerated, but still.

For some reason, all of a sudden, Vista x64 Ultimate seems to think that I am NOT connected to the internet, when I actually am. The network tray icon does NOT display the little globe that indicates that it detects the internet. Contrary to this, I am connected to the internet 100%, and my internal network (regular workgroup) is fully functional; all other computers are recognizable and file transfers work perfectly. My connection is Verizon FIOS, and my router is a D-Link DGL-4500.

I tried EVERYTHING I could think of, which includes, but is not limited to:

1. Reset the router.
2. Try all different types of DNS on the router and on the computer,
3. Release and renew ALL IPs (this fixes it until the next reboot)
4. Clearing and reregistering the DNS cache
5. Revoking and assigning new internal IPs to the computer
6. Deleting and reinstalling the network card via Device Manager
7. Rebuilding the Winsock 2 and TCP/IP Stack
8. System Restore to a KNOWN WORKING time

If I do get the little globe to be displayed on the network, it's only momentarily (a few minutes), before it disappears.

The ONLY way that I can get it "fixed" for sure, is to release and renew the IP address, and this only works until the next reboot, when it goes right back to the same behavior.

One thing I should mention is that before all this, I was experimenting both on the router level as well as through Vista itself, with OpenDNS. I admit that I did change the DNS to OpenDNS's servers, but that was only temporarily. But even with or without OpenDNS, it still does the same thing, even when I revert back to defaults.

What could be the problem? I would appreciate any suggestions and help.

Thank you.

Well to be honest, I have no idea why you're having this problem. Network troubleshooting isn't really my thing.

I only have a couple of ideas:

1) Try a repair from the Vista CD or WinRE.

2) Contact Microsoft about the problem. They're offering free support for Vista. Getting a reply from them only takes about a day in my experience. Here's the link:

Help and Support

3) Reinstall Vista?