I'm using OS9.2 and Explorer 5.1. At some point Explorer froze and I had to reboot. When I returned, I couldn't connect to the Internet anymore by clicking directly on the program. The only way I could accomplish this was first to go into Remote Access, which would make the internet connection, and then click open the Explorer program. Even when I installed a completely new version of the Explorer program, thinking that maybe a file had been corrupted, it still won't let me connect to the Internet from the program itself. I have tried with OSX as well, but I get the same problem.

Oddly, I have a similar problem with Word 98. I can't open a text file directly, only when I open the program first.

How can I fix this?

when you say explorer do you mean IE because in that case you could update it to 6 or switch to mozilla firefox it is what i use.
if you are talking about the program explorer.exe that runs in the background and runs all the visual effects on your desktop then try system restore.

I am on a Mac, and don't think there is an IE 6, is there? I'll go look, thanks.