I did steps 1-20, I only wrote down my old IP address not the subnet mask or anything (not sure if that's important?).

My computers location has now changed from my homecity to my internet providers...

I really am a newb at computers as you've probably guessed. Is there anychance i'm using some kind of illegal IP address and that's whats stopping me from accessing some sites? Or maybe my provider needs to validate an IP or something?

This post has been edited by Sirettx: Mar 5 2008, 06:28 PM

OK, now do just steps 1 to 14, and type the IP address you wrote down, but the mask at step 12 should be :
255.255.255.0
And then retry after step 14.
Also, if it does not work, in order to help understand, do the following :
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "command" and hit ok
Now, in the "command" prompt, type
ping www.astahost.com
You should have and answer like "Answer from 216.240.134.213"
Please keep us informed.

OK, now, I suggest a simple test : install Firefox (another browser, simply not Microsoft, completely independent).
I suggest portable firefox, take it from here : http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
It's sompletely standalone, you put the file somewhere on your hard disk, you double-click on the file Firefox_Portable_2.0.0.12_en-us.paf.exe in order to uncompress it, and you run the file FirefoxPortable.exe in the expanded folder.
Then you have a fully working firefox web browser, you can surf with it.
If this works, if firefox works correctly, this means that the problem is in Internet explorer.
If further you don't want to use it any more, you simply remove the files from your pc, this software is a standalone one, it's not installed.
If Firefox happens not to work, this means that the problem is inside your PC firewall.

Firefox is not finding a server...

Is it possible changing my IP address has changed some of my firewall settings?

Firefox is only allowing the same sites as my Internet Explorer. This might be a dumb question but is there anyway I can restore my old firewall settings, system restore wouldn't work?

before re-trying the google test, re-do the ping trick with "ping www.google.com"
Then, in order to temporarily stop the Microsoft firewall, click "start", then "settings", "control pannel", or something like that, and you will find the firewall menu, and temporarily choose "stop the windows firewall".
If then everything happens to work without the firewall, this means that the firewall is responsible of the thing, and now we know where the problem is coming form.
If the internet does not work correcly with disabling the firewall, then, the problem is coming from somewhere else, and we will have to have a more careful look at the gateway address.

Pinging google didn't work and I can't find my firewall anywhere.

Where else could it be?

This post has been edited by Sirettx: Mar 8 2008, 07:15 AM

OK, if now we start seeing more clearly where it comes from.
If you can ping www.astahost.com and you cannot ping www.google.com,
the problem is not inside your firewall.
The problem is in your gateway or in your dns.
The dns is in charge of translating the www.google.com name to google's ip address.
And the gateway is in charge of routing the IP packets from google to your PC.
So, one of these changed, either in your PC when you touched your own IP, or at your Internet provider main site, althoug I thing the latter is less probable.
when you ping www.google.com, do you see an IP address appearing ?
Yordan

Yeah, I think so.

Is it okay to post it here?

Please ave a look again.
When you do the ping test, if you see an IP address for astahost.com and for google.com and google does not appear at the browser, then this means that your proxy address is not set correctly.