Ok, first I'll tell you about my situation. I am running XP home behind a linksys router/switch and cable internet. Ok, so for months everything has worked just fine. And then one day, certian internet stuff suddenly stops working. All that I have that works right now is a game called half-life, and regular browsing with IE. All my other games don't work. Also, it seems any websites that involve sending out info don't work aswell. [ie: Hotmail(When signing in), Windows Update, ect.] I don't know if this is related to the problem or not, but it seemed to all start around the same time I installed a new AIM patch. I have tried many things to solve the problem involving checking firewall settings, network TCP/IP settings, and a lot of other things. One last thing of interest is, at the windwos update site, the error message that pops up talks about SSL not working, but I dont really know anything about SSL other than that it's some proticol involving security...

Sorry I also forgot to mention I have another computer behind the router that works just fine, so I don't think it's the router...

In internet explorer go to tools then internet options click the content tab at the top Under certificates click the Clear SSL State see if that helps

I think you will need to forward some ports.