I finally broke down and got a Linksys wireless router so I can do my homework gasp at home.
Initially, it wouldn’t let the laptop access the Internet, but that was fixed. I can get to any non-secure site. OTOH, I can’t get into websites that use the https protocol. I’ve tried getting into my Yahoo and Gmail accounts and my credit union. I can get to the signin page for Yahoo and the credit union, but not Gmail. I haven’t tried any other pages that use this protocol.
My desktop, which is directly connected to the router, works just fine. I can do anything on the PC that I could do before. It’s the laptop via the wireless that’s having problems.
I would try opening IE, going to Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced and clicking “Restore Defaults”. Sometimes the settings in the security section can get messed up, preventing you from visiting secure sites.
You might want to note the settings in the various sections first, if you have anything customized that you want to redo. But I would leave the security ones at the default and see if you can connect, before you change any of those back to the original settings.
If you are using windows, you might want to try IE just once, to see if you can narrow down the problems. I use Firefox myself also, and on my Advanced -> Security tab, I have use SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 checked, and use TLS unchecked. If that helps.
If you can, try temporarily connecting the Laptop directly to the router with an ethernet cable. That will narrow down whether it is a wireless problem, or an OS problem. What OS and version are you running?