Internet connection problems

[VelvetClover]

My laptop has started to take ages to connect to the internet. It's taking about 10-20 minutes to connect. When I check the Network Map it shows I'm the computer is connected to the wireless thingy but that the wireless thingy is not connected to the internet.
When I check for a solution to the problem it tells me -"there may be a problem with your Domain Name Server (DNS) Configuration - Windows failed to find the well known host "www.microsoft.com" using DNS. The server may be down"
Anyone know what this means? And does anyone know whats going on and how I might be able to solve this problem?

[Jamesy]

I know this is quite stupidly obvious and not technical, but have you tried turning modem/ router on and off again?

Whenever I get network issues this seems to work.