In Linux:

After connecting to the college wifi, going to the network login page logging in, the internet works perfectly as it should.

In Windows:

After connecting to the college wifi, going to the network login page, logging in, Windows shows "Internet access" and the wireless icon turns white. But still after that, regardless of the browser being used, attempting to accessing any page just shows "Sending request". It does work though after a lot of tries, but only in intervals.

But when running Ubuntu 11.10 in VirtualBox, it works properly just like booting in Ubuntu, even if it isn't working on Windows.

The college wifi service is really crappy and has been unable to solve this problem. I'm pretty sure there should be a solution for this, but what? What is it that Ubuntu is doing right and Windows isn't?

Windows settings set to "Automatically detect settings" and no proxy server used.