Tethering on windows 7 assigns an IP but I can't actually get anywhere. Thoughts? No access to a Linux (or anything other than windows 7) desktop here, sadly.
"tethering" as in for a mobile phone via usb?
I vaguely remember there is some setting in windows about sharing the internet connection.. could be related ..
also maybe check any dns-related settings ..
does it work if you manually enter the dns server in the phone settings?
otherwise maybe install cygwin on it (for me thats a "must have" on windows machines generally - gives you a bashlike shell and familar linux tools - quite a lot of linux software can compile on cygwin)
alo maybe on win7 or later also settings related to "windows firewall", etc .. check if related services (daemons) have appropriate network access