I get the message "cannot find server". However, the funny thing is that i can ping hosts on the net. I have checked the network settings and they are all the same as my other 2 machines. Anyone out there with an idea as to what the problem is here? I am at wit's end.

if you can ping an external host then your network is fine, windows is fine, must be the browser, make sure you don't have a proxy under IE > Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab > Settings / LAN Settings. Also disable any firewalls to see if it works

vista? Upper right hand corner of the screen click on tools and uncheck the (work offline button)

If you are using a router you should set all the machine's tcp/ip properties to automatic, otherwise you can't always rely on the dns to function correctly.