A Linux Problem ....

[#1]

What is going wrong? My laptop is dual boot Linux Mint 9 and Window Vista.
If I decide to let Linux self boot from the grub screen, this is what happens….
1. Power up the laptop… displays the green GNU Grub screen. > auto boots to Linux Mint 9
2. Login screen appears, and I enter my password correctly.
3.Welcome screen appears, with the Thunderbird and Firefox Icons present.
4. On the bottom bar, there is a signal indication with 4 bars and if I “hover” the mouse it says connected to my wireless router 100%
5. Right click on the Firefox icon > open > and wait for the Google page to appear…
6. Get the google url in the search bar at the top, and “ Looking up google.co.uk “ in the bottom left corner.
After about 30 seconds, to 1 minute. I get a page  “Problem loading page” “Server not found” “ Firefox cannot find www.google.co.uk”.
On checking the conncetion icon at the bottom right… it says “Connection Information”…
Auto Login  XXXXXXX (default)
Interface 801.22 WiFi (WLAN0)
Driver B43
Speed 9Mbs
Security WPA/WPA2
***************************************
So why is it not finding Google
********************************************
Further information… Wireless and networking are “enabled”
66 updates are waiting on the Update Manager. BUT… after 30 secs to 1 minute…
“ Cannot connect to internet “
****************************************************************
So, I close down Linux and re-start.
Choose Vista from the gnu grub screen and eventually get the vista  desktop. ...HOWEVER… it does not “Auto Connect” to the internet. 
The signal bars are “grey”… and “hover” the mouse over , it says “wireless connection not available”
Now …. Right click on the internet icon, and “connect to a network” appears… click on that. And it shows no networks…
So…. Shut down laptop.  (Shut Down…. Not Restart as above)..
Power up and boot up the laptop again… choose Vista… and let it run…. It autoconnects to the internet through my router via wireless. And all is well… !
( Except… all is not well, as I sometimes would like to use Linux to connect ! ! )..
So what is wrong…? Prior to writing this down "as it happened".... I was using Vista with no problem of connection.... this "non connectivity" happens every time I try with Linux Mint 9....

[#2]

Have you changed anything on your router?
Does it have an ip address
Try pinging the router (Menu/admin/Network tools if you want to avoid the command line)

[#3]

Try connecting to your router by entering it's ip address.
You may have wireless problem OR internet connection problems.
I occasionally get problems with Windows not being able to see the internet, but Linux always works.
Both OS's can connect to my router.
Rebooting the router cures the problem for days, weeks or even months.
Don't know why!

[#4]

Quote

Driver B43

I think that might be the significant piece of information. The Broadcom chipsets that use these drivers require firmware to be downloaded before the wireless card can be used. I suspect that Linux is having some sort of problem and not downloading the firmware to the card properly, or maybe the wrong firmware. If you then reboot the laptop into Vista ( without a power down ) then Vista doesn't load the 'correct' firmware cos it thinks the card is already loaded, and thus the wireless can't be used. Powering down resets the wireless card and booting into Vista, can load the firmware and all's Ok.
This http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 might help identify if Linux is configured correctly...

[#5]

Can`t understand that at this time of night... will try to have a play around over the weekend, if I get time...
Basically, if I boot to Vista.... everything is ok...
then next time I boot up. try Linux  no wireless connection... _
then shut down, and boot into windows it works fine again.
It used to work ok... but have not tried linux for months and months, so maybe I need to wire up the router and download the B43 driver again...
catch you later , and thanks for the replies..