Upgraded to Karmic and laptop wireless doesn't work unless through vpn

[bgc]

Hi, I recently upgraded to Karmic on my laptop. The wireless appears to be connected and with a strong signal, but internet doesn't seem to work, at all. The most informative response I get is from w3m, which says 'looking for socket' and just hangs. Interestingly, if I connect then through a vpn to my workplace, then internet works ok. What could the issue be? Does anyone have any idea? Strangely, this is the same wireless through which the upgrade (and the 900MB or so download required for it) was done, so I have no idea what had changed and why. I would be very grateful for any help you can give me! Thank you!

bgc

[bgc]

In fact, I decided to do a fresh install, and now not even wired works. It says it is connected, I can ping google, for instance, but can't get anything else to work. Also, I can set up the wireless, it says it's connected, I can ping google, but nothing else, and now no VPN out of the box so no way to access internet!

[bgc]

So, I managed to get Firefox to work by disabling ipv6. Following indications online, I tried disabling ipv6 systemwide by editing grub, but that didn't solve the problem (I still can't get ubuntu updates for instance). Anyone know what the issue may be?