Sony Vaio Laptop Having Issues With Internet

Hello! I have an issue with my Sony Vaio laptop. Here's what's going on. The computer came from one of those rent a center places. So of course it has a sketchy past. So we don't know much of the history of it. And when we got the laptop it had a ton of Vaio applications that I thought was unncessary. One of them being their little internet connection application. Well, come to find out it was kinda important because ever since we've been having spotty connection with the internet everywhere we are. I do have internet at home with a cord. So I put it in and sometimes it even has issues detecting that. I've restored the computer a couple times to get the internet back. And it halfway worked. I even went to the Vaio site. Got the proper application. Downloaded it. Then attempted to install it back. And the problem just got worse. Would there be anyone on here who has knowledge on Vaio's to help?

Thanks,

Mark

P.S. I will do anything to help this cause. So any diagnostics you ask me to run I will do them. Promise.

What is the model of this Vaio?

It is a Sony Vaio VGN-NR330E

So I ended up fixing the internet for the meantime. We haven't had as much patchy behavior from it when we are at home or college. However, I am not able to install anything because for some reason it says the internet connection doesn't exist. For example, I tried to install Google Chrome and got a firewall troubleshoot. It's not the firewall. I can turn Windows Firewall off and it still doesn't install correctly. What's strange is that even though the net works perfectly, Viao Smart Network is not all there. And about two weeks ago before I started the post I uninstalled the Smart Network and reinstalled it and we had NO internet. Go figure? So I restored back to my settings that at least give us internet on the laptop.

Does any of these issues make sense for a Sony Vaio?

Thanks for any help.

Mark

Looking at your past posts I didn't see anything conclusive, but I'm guessing that you are using Windows XP?

If this is the case, try doing a System Restore.

Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Restore.

When this opens make sure that "Restore my computer to an earlier time" is chosen, and click on Next>.

The dates appearing in bold are the dates that you can restore to, click on the date that you want and then click Next> to start the System Restore. This may take a long time to complete, and when it is done it will restart your computer. When the computer restarts and you have logged on as the administrator a Restoration Complete page will appear, click on OK to complete the process.

I've tried System Restore. The computer runs on Windows Vista.