I've tried a few remedies (including turning off the modem and restarting it, etc), but nothing is working. I pinged the router and it came back with "request timed out" which is the only clue I've found as to what could be wrong. Also: the other computer in my ROOM is connecting, as well as my roommate's xbox, so I'm fairly CERTAIN it isn't the router itself.

A little background: the computer has been out of use for about 6 months, I finally did a malware scan on it and cleaned it up, so it may have been damaged? Not sure...please help me!! Boot up the computer...   Open a command prompt and type:

ipconfig


what INFORMATION is displayed? Boot the computer into Safe Mode with Networking, and try browsing the Internet..

If you cannot, ping the router and see if you can get a "REPLY", while in Safe Mode with Networking...1.  The output from the "ipconfig" command shows two(?) adaptors:
     a.  Ethernet adaptor Local Area Connection
               Media State:  Media DISCONNECTED

     b.  Ethernet adaptor Stephanie

2.  Do you have two ethernet adaptors on that computer?