try a full power down of everything I do mean everything. Power off the computers, the router, the modem etc. leave all power off for 5 mins or so, then power up in this order, power to modem only let it get fully lit up, then power on to router, let it get fully lit up, then power up your computers letting each get fully loaded. Then try to connect to your wireless, I assume you have put in your wireless network passphrase for the laptops that are trying to access the wifi network.

What brand/model laptop, what operating system

It does not seem to be a network adapter issue either, as both wireless and direct connection are problematic. The next step to see if a program typically Anti Virus is causing issue. So lets boot the computer to safe mode with Networking and see if you can connect that way, lets just concentrate using a direct connection. Restart the computer, keep tapping the F8 Key, the computer will boot to the advanced boot options menu black screen with white letter. From the list presented to you, use the arrow key to select Safe Mode With Networking once selected hit enter on the keyboard. Now try to connect to only Google.com. Let us know if you can connect that way. Do not surf the internet in this mode. Please be sure to try another browser too maybe before doing all this above in case this is a silly internet explorer issue.. Joe

"What's the point of a grouchy comment like that." I found her comment amusing, nothing more. On a more interesting topic, updates, I experience hiccups with the monthly Windows updates pretty regularly. Maybe two or three times a year? They usually come around the 15th of the month. Sometimes PCs become sluggish or exhibit odd behavior. There are times when a further update gets pushed out the next day, or a few days later, and these seem to contain fixes. Very rarely, maybe every few years, I find myself rolling back to the previous month's update to let it settle down, and then the subsequent month's update makes everything right again. I always use auto-update for Windows and my main applications, I think doing otherwise is silly.