ok, Laptop is on XP, IP address is 192.168.0.230. Default gateway is blank. DHCP is using 192.168.0.1 and autoconfig is not enabled.
Desktop is on same router, running Vista and works fine.
Laptop connects to broadband, opens outlook but won't synch with work server, and i'm told it's because the work server is using the same range and that i need to change my local range.
When I amended the IP values as suggested i lost broadband connection to both laptop and desktop. As i could not get back online, i used another laptop and neighbours network to put the values back to what they were, restarted and both got broadband back.
Reason I'm reluctant to ditch AOL is that i've used the same email address for many years, but i hate AOL. If I could switch to sky but still keep my AOL email i would, i think it would solve many problems.