those smiley faces are supposed to be a colon and a "D"

Greetings

This happened to me recently, and it turned out that my ISP had changed the DNS server.

This was discovered through a call to them and asking what their DNS server addresses were.
The one I had used for over a year was no longer in service.

Anyway, I entered a number for a new DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf and the problem is fixed.

Hope your problem is a easily fixed.

Guzzi

I unplugged the cable modem and router for a couple of minutes, plugged them back in, and everything's working fine.

Wow.

Thanks very much everyone for your time and trying to help me get this figured out!

Cheers,
fk

nevermind this post, i did not even see there was a second page of replies or that the issue was even resolved until i posted

Actually, this IS believable. Cable modems will remember the MAC addresses of machines it assigns IP addresses to. When you connect via router, the router's MAC is assigned an IP. When you connect your computer directly, it has a new MAC address and the cable modem won't automatically assign a new IP.

Whenever I do ANYTHING with a router's or computer's physical connection to a cable or DSL modem, I always turn off the router or computer AND the cable or DSL modem, wait a few minutes, and turn on the modem FIRST and give a few to get connected and then I turn on the router next, if present, and wait and then the computers.

Glad you got that figured out. I notice you didn't mention changing from the wireless router to a direct connection in your first post and shame on me for not asking the "what did you change" question, which should always be asked.

Peace...