Here's something interesting

[Chucktone]

Ah well, I found the culprit. Though this was a particularly valuable learning experience just from all the info gathered from you guys. The problem turned out to be in the Connection Settings, which unbeknownst to me was somehow set to the system internet settings where the default selection is "dial up". I have DSL so I obviously needed the other selection. Fixed and finished. Wiping a bit of egg from my face but one of the things I would have considered least. Have no idea how the thing could have been changed as I haven't been in it since the last install and up til this all started about a month or so ago everything had been working perfectly. Well at least I know what to look for should such a mystery come upon me again. doh!
My humble thanks for all the input!!

[gibby]

glad it worked out, could have been when you changed over to IE7, when I changed over some settings changed due to IE defaults, took some searching to fix but all worked out