weird internet connection problem in Vista, connection fine but browser does not work

I am seeking advice here to solve a problem with internet connection on my laptop.
The laptop (Thinkpad X61 running 32 bit Vista) seems to be ok to connect to my router, which is connected to a cable modem. Internet is also connected on the base level (more details below). However Internet Explorer (or firefox, opera) cannot find any web page, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program cannot connect to email server.
I am decently ok with computers, so I have run some checks myself. This is not a problem of router or cable modem, as my other computers can access internet through the same router and modem. Also, the laptop gets an IP address from the router and can connect to shared resources on other computers within the same network.
The laptop also finds outside addresses and get a response when I run ping command, e.g. ping www.google.com or ping www.yahoo.com, suggesting that the connection to DNS server is fine at the base level.
I was suspecting that windows firewall, my Symantec antivirus or VPN is creating the problem. But the problem persists after I disabled firewall and the antivirus software and deleted VPN connection.
One important thing to mention is that this problem starts when after a software install, which I removed afterwards. I tried to run netsh reset by "netsh winsock reset catalog", "netsh int ipv4 reset myreset.log" and "netsh int ipv6 reset myreset.log" and restart. Still does not work.
Really desperate for a solution. Any suggestions? Thank you!

 

Hi Rainstone,
Did you try system restore.to the date before installing that bad software?