Vista - Cant conect to my wirless network

I just bought a new hp pav m9040n with vista home prem. built in wirless
card. I have a cable modem with a netgear wirless router WNR834B. I have been
using this for a year on my sony viao with xpsp2 with no problems. On the
M9040N i can see the network and it shows conected with a very good signal.
But when i open IE.. i dont get anywhere. it hangs up and i cant get on line.
When i try firefox.. i can get to the main google page and can even search.
But that is it. My connection stops. No idea why IE gets no where and
firefox can at least get one search b4 it hangs up. I also have norton and i
hve stopped the firewall thinking that would help. no go. and yes i dont have
2 firewalls going at the same time. I was on the phone with hp for 45 min..
no ideas. im sure there is a simple answer.. but i cant seem to find it.