in IE, click Help, then click About IE, read "Cipher Strength" & post it here.

128 bit

you don't say what you're OS is - i'll assume you have XP (whatever flavor), but correct me if i'm wrong; also, you'll need to have admin rights to your XP system in order to take this next course of action - check that; hopefully you've already deleted your temp files, including offline files, deleted cookies, and if you have a broadband or dsl connection you've reset your temp cache down to 1mb; if not do so now to see if that clears up the issues. ok, if you've done all that & you're still having connection issues locate your "HOSTS" file in the "C:\Windows\I386" directory and rename it with at least one character change, not including capitalization (be VERY careful and make sure this is THE file that you're renaming, cause this is all on your own hoof if the crap hits the fan) - it doesn't matter what you rename it to, so long as you can find it again, the easier the better (i'll typically use a date format: for instance, if i was renaming the hosts file today, i'd rename it as "hosts_20051213"; whatever works for you on ur system is all that counts). after you've got the file renamed (double check to make sure the renaming took) perform a full log-off and then a full turn-off, wait 10-15 seconds, or more if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling [ ;-) ], and then reboot. the system will look for the "hosts" file, and, not finding it, will simply rebuild it (btw, its simply a file that mimics a routing table, & if the data in the file becomes corrupt - which is easy enough to have happen - the issues that you're experiencing are a common result). let us know what happens!