It might be a firewall or proxy server that's preventing the images from coming through on the first try. Are you using a firewall such as Norton Personal Firewall or McAffee firewall?

I have the free zone alarm firewall that came with the Yahoo DSL package

I have this same problem and none of the solutions i have found fix the problem. I have also tried reinstalling my ethernet adapter drivers.

I am connected through a residential gateway but my laptop works fine.

When i right click on an image and select "show image" the picture loads but it is annoying to have to do this to every picture that doesn't load. Also the pictures are not displaying randomly. (If i hit refresh some of the pictures that loaded the first time don't while some that didn't load the first time did)

I have used adaware and spywareblaster to check for spyware and symantic anti-virus corporate to check for viruses, all with the latest definition updates installed. Also all critical updates for internet explorer have been installed as well.