Let me start by saying that Vista sucks. I am having a problem connecting to the internet. About 90% of the time the network says Local Access only. If I fiddle around with ipconfig /release and /renew, I can eventually get an internet connection. From researching on line, this seems to be a pretty common problem. For some reason, it picks up a non-existent IP address in the 169.254 range.
I've tried a lot of the suggested fixes without any real success. I disable IPv6 but it always comes back on.
I am about ready to spring for a Windows 7 disk, but willing to try anything that might help. Does anyone have a magic fix for this problem?

I can't help you with your problem but you are already in the mindset that Vista blows so even if you fix the problem you will still not be happy. The obvious is to upgrade to Windows 7 and if you still have problems, it will not feel as bad because of all the positive hype Windows 7 has received .

Yeah, Windows 7 is gonna be great!

Windows 7 is not going to be different from Vista at all in terms of networking. Heck, XP networking was pretty crummy, too.

I would try using a static IP address, not DHCP. I suspect what's going on is that Norton System Center sucks, or McAfee whatever sucks, not that Vista sucks. While I've seen problems with DHCP on Vista, it was directly related to McAfee HIPS, not Vista. With that product disabled, DHCP worked just fine.

I'm using AVG and Zone Alarm for my security suite. As bad as XP might be, it runs circles around Vista for networking. It's my wife's computer, and if I don't get this sorted out soon, she's gonna lose it!