Internet Explorer ie7 won't connect but firefox can??!? WTF???

Okay, so I was doing fine and minding my own business when I noticed that Explorer 7 was not functioning anymore. The error message I see is: (Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage) . I am using an HP Pavilion notebook about a year old, running XP with an AMD athlon64. I also use Firefox, so for a time I simply avoided pain by using Firefox. Unfortunately for me, there are websites that only support and need to use Explorer, so I must get it figured out. So far, I have uninstalled and reinstalled MIE7, I've reset settings. I've run spyware and virus (Norton) proggies with no results. I've hit half a dozen websites and visited Microsoft for ideas. I've done it all and I still cannot use MIE -- at least not for anything related to the Internet! From what I can see from Google searches on this thing, it's a wide-spread annoyance. But I don't see any fixes yet PLEASE HELP!!!

Internet Explorer ie7 won't connect but firefox can??!? WTF???microsoft office 2003

Try going to tools %26gt; internet options %26gt; connections tab %26gt; lan settings %26gt; make sure those three boxes aren't checked

by default the top one normally would be and that sometimes can keep you offline- otherwise mozilla is a better browser anyway and is more secure and i would recommend using that anyway.

Good luck!

Internet Explorer ie7 won't connect but firefox can??!? WTF???windows xp professional internet explorer

Try to delete the files, Cookies, History on internet explore
I suggest you consider using Netscape because it very similiar to explore and firefox.
Uninstall IE7. Replace iexplorer.exe (found in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer), if still present with iexplorer.exe of IE6 (get it from someone, shouldn't be too hard to find).

Now install IE7.

Hope this helps.