this is really weird, because i had this exact same problem in may on a different computer running xp, and i posted here and got my answer--uncheck everything in the http 1.1 section in advanced internet options. that worked great on my other computer, but it isn't working on this one. i can now only browse secure web sites beginning with HTTPS rather than HTTP, and all other connections work great. my browser worked fine last night. any ideas? thanks in advance!

this is even MORE bizarre, and i'm not sure if this is a surefire fix, but here is what i did: i was poking around some more in the internet options and decided to uncheck "use automatic configuration script" in my lan settings in the connection tab. suddenly, everything worked! just out of curiosity, i RE-CHECKED the box, applied, and everything STILL worked. i rebooted, and everything still works. xp is an odd duck.

you need to go into explorer properties then go to security and reset it to the low setting and click apply and ok then restart your browser.