MSIE 8 Cannot connect to the Internet!

Greetings again! After reinstalling Windows XP Pro, SP3 on my system, I followed the advice given to me through the form, and went as follows: WinXP with slipstreamed SP3 AVG Free 4.5 Windows Defender WinPatrol (Free) OfficeXP Pro PowerArchiver v9.20.07 Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro (Not the Reader, the Full Monty) I was sure to update and reboot at each step, so I kept things as well managed as I could, using ATF Cleaner as I went. Hardware Recap: Compaq Presario A938CA Intel Pentium Dual Core T2370 @1.73GHz 3 GB memory 320 GB SATA HD DVD Burner WinXP Pro, SP3 Today, I find that my Internet Explorer v8 is unable to access the internet! This means my access to Microsoft Update is unavailable! FireFox 3.0.11 works just fine (as evidenced by these posts). I suspect I have some configuration somewhere messed up. My primary suspect is WinPatrol. All help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Well, as far as I know, WinPatrol doesn't have anything that would "block" internet explorer from working on the internet. You also did not list any other software installed on your computer that has the capability to "block" internet explorer. So, there is a couple things I would look at. First, turn off the windows firewall in control panel and make sure you didn't somehow block internet explorer with it. This is unlikely though, but worth a couple minutes to test. Turn it off, test IE, and then turn it back on. Next, look in your internet options, and click on the "connections" tab, and then "Lan settings." Make sure that EVERYTHING is unchecked in that section. Restart IE and see if it gets on-line. Those are the two most obvious things. The fact that this is a fresh install, and you didn't list any software that really could cause this problem, it should be fairly easy to sort out. Let us know. Also, if you still can't get connected, would you please tell us what the actual error message is when you try to access a webpage in IE? There are a couple different errors that can help us to know what specific problem IE is having.

Under the connections tab, I had 'Use Proxy Server' checked. Once unchecked, I was back in business! Something so simple, and I could not for the life of me think of that little option! Thanks! I just wish ALL of my system problems were as easy to fix

Slightly new Wrinkle: The Check-box keeps coming back as Checked! Usualy after a system reboot. Since it's not my preferred browser, I hadn't noticed it right away, but decided to check it out, just to be on the safe side. Windows Defender and AVG 8.5 scans both come up clean. Any suggestions as to where to look for something that will auto-check that box on me?