internet connection / wifi problem with M1330

Having some difficulties connecting to wifi via my XPS M1330 (which is running vista ultimate) my PS3, iphone and desktop are all connecting fine, so the internet connection is not the problem.

Actually when i go into the network connections on the laptop, my wifi is still showing up - it even says i am connected.

Yet when i close that on the status bar on the bottom right of the screen it is showing that i am not connected but that there are wireless networks available. So i double click on that and it brings up the network connections thing again - which is showing i am connected with 5 full bars of signal! Also tried to connect via my neighbours unsecured network and its the same story - says i am connected on the network page but when i come out of that its the same problem.

Tried deleting the connection details and then treating it as a new connection - everything went fine, the pop up box said i was connected successfully - but when i come out of that the bottom right box on the status bar is showing not connected, wireless networks available (etc)

Not sure is this is the right part of the forum to be posting this but i was just reading through some old threads and it seems the problem i had a few months ago with the display and needing the graphics card and motherboard replaced was not an isolated case which i assumed it was. So was just wondering if the same overheating issue could have messed up the wifi card to make it act weird and if anyone else had ever had this problem?

One other thing - Norton, under the auto-protect section it is saying error but i don't know if that is because i have no internet connection, or if that is causing the lack of internet connection (or it may have been showing this error for days before the internet problems). When i run a full system scan, check spyware etc then its showing everything to be ok. I haven't downloaded any programs or any other files for weeks only things that have automatic updates (most recent being one for firefox i think) so at a loss to what is causing this.

Thanks for any help!

 

Norton might not allow connections to unsecure networks. Is your connection secure? If not than try setting it with a password and trying again.

 

My connection is secure and has a password.

Its very odd, normally if i am not connected to the internet but in range of wifi the icon on the status bar has an X beside it like this


But the icon is showing like normal as if i was connected - until i hover over it with the mouse and it brings up this



Then here is a pic of the network connections box showing that i am connected and with full bars of signal, yet on the hover over of the icon on the bottom right its saying not connected


Its driving me nuts