OK Guys & Girls (and everything inbetween..... ) Laptop has a wifi card (pcmcia-watsit slot thingy) turn on laptop get conection to router but no internet no lan no nothing....... this is what i have to do to get it to work.... network connections/wifi properties/ uncheck tcp/ip reboot laptop go back to properties and re-check tcp/ip aquires network address....whoosh away we go..... so i brought a new wifi card by a different maker, after re-installing again and again, still same problem, upgraded to xp pro....still there....i've tried ipconfig /flushdns /release /renew all sorts of stuff, updates, ms knowledge base, winsockxpfix, the last resort is of course format start again but you all know what a ball-ache that is, oh and btw no there isn't a restore point I can go back to or a "rescue" disc either ( no don't lecture me, its normally me doing the lecturing...."did we make a back up?" no I fecking didn't thats why I phoned you fool! ) anyway, what do you think, any idea's? I can continue the messing about (its quicker if i uncheck tcp/ip before i shutdown, thats if i remember) but its when you are working away, like I am now.......and it looses its connection and I have to uncheck, repair, recheck, test. just to make a post on a forum...... Thanks in advance Jace