do a ping to www.google.com. that will do two things, first it will test to see if you dns coming through your router. Secondly, it will check basic connectivity to an internet site. try it first from your machine directly connected to the router (unless you can already surf on this machine, then just go to the next step), then go to one of your laptops and try it there.
Just had a thought, what is the ip address your laptops are pulling?? Also are they set to infrastructure mode or ad-hoc mode?? it's possible they are pulling APIPA addys and running in circles trying to get to the web.