At home, I access the internet through a wireless network provided by the City. Normally, I access it through my laptop and do my heavier computing tasks on my normally non-networked desktop. Every now and then, I borrow my friend's ethernet switch and two cables to let my desktop connect to the wireless network through the laptop (for updates, etc.)

Here's the issue:

My laptop (which connects directly to the WiFi network) receives "HTTP Proxy Reports" stating that the host cannot be reached. This is true for the majority of webpages (including Bleepingcomputer.com). I assusmed it was a problem with the city's equipment and waited quietly for them to fix it. IN the meantime I used proxy browser services to do some limited browsing.

Today, I connect my desktop to the laptop to update Windows, antivirus, etc. and I was able to access all webpages with no problem!

How can this be?

Stats:

Laptop:
Model: Dell Latitude C400
MS Windows XP Pro SP2 (upgraded from XP Home SP2 just before this problem started, could that be it?)
Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA wireless card
Intel Pentium III-M @ 1000MHz

Desktop:
ECS 661GX-M Motherboard
MS Windows XP Pro SP2 (clean install)
Intel Celeron D @2.66 GHz

And now the desktop is exhibiting many of the same issues! Arg!

Well... there are two things, one could possibly be spyware malware or a virus, or it could be the browser your using... OH wait now I remember, this is a virus, I almost remember... This is a pretty malicious virus, you really need to do a hijack this log, under the hijack forum, they'll catch it for you. Oh, and if you refresh the page enough, it will sometimes show you the page...