Kevin's Watch

Ok, so last month for my birthday I got a Dell Inspiron 1150. It has a built-in wireless card. I also got a Linksys wireless router that allowed to me to get online on the laptop through the house's other computer, which also uses a highspeed connection. Now, one day I got some adware on my laptop. I got rid of it, I thought, but then I couldn't log onto the internet....Now the laptop recognizes my wireless connection at home and my wireless network at school, but I can't get on Explorer or Insant Messenger. I've taken it to my school's IT and to Circuit City, which services Dells. According to the Tech. Department, my Computer Name has been changed, and I definitely didn't do that, so something may be overriding my computer. They say they've "never seen anything like this," where you recognize the connection but can't get online. They recommended any of these courses of action:
-getting a CD from my Internet provider and reinstalling it
-doing a system restore
-sending it back to Dell
Now, I don't think it's my network connection, since that's being recognized. Should I do any of these recommended actions? Or something else? I really have no idea what to do.
btw, I've ran two virus checks using AdAware and Norton. I've gotten rid of all Spyware, and I don't think I have many viruses left...