Can get email and newsgroups but not web, same from three wifi sources

I'm using win7 on the laptop, but posting to win10 also because you guys
know things too!

The little window that opens from my systray icon says I'm connnected
and connected to the internet, and email and newsgroups work okay, but
neither Firefox nor Opera will load a webpage.

In the systray is an image of 5 bars, getting taller to the right. My
recollection is that these used to be filled with a color when I was on
the net. Now they are only the outlines of the bars. Is my
recollection correct. What does it mean if there is only the outline?

Or maybe it's not the systray icon itself but the list of possibile wifi
signals that get colored in? In that case, the wifi it's connected to
is green at the top of all 5 bars but others from my n'bors have only 2
or 3 bars.

I haven't changed any settings but there continue to be MS updates and
there might have been one since last May. Could one have changed
something? Could this be about firewalls?




My laptop was working fine last May and I didn't use it until 2 weeks
ago, at a hotel for a night. I thought I was connected to the hotel's
wifi, but I definitely know how to connect to my phone, which I've used
many times as a hotspot. I could finally get email and newsgroups but
not the web. Now I'm home and the computer connected automatically to
my home wifi, and same problem.

I have to go on another trip in a week and if this is a hardware
problem, I'll have to hurry up and buy another laptop. I haven't
dropped the thing, so I'm hoping it's a software problem that we/you can
solve.