IE only connects to secure sites

Hi,
My friend Bob called me last week with a strange problem and asked for help,
but I'm clueless at this point. He's running XP professional and IE7 cat
5'ed to a router. He lost the ability to connect to regular websites. I
suggested he replace the Ethernet card in the PC and the cat5 cable which he
did, but that didn't help. It still only connects to secure websites. The
router is wireless and the laptop downstairs is working normally in that it
connects to all sites.
Any suggestions much appriciated.
Al

problem resolved.
Zone-Alarm was the culprit.
He uninstalled it, and turned on XP's firewall, rebooted, and now it works
like it should.
Al
"~~single~~" <alik@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:Ov9J8B4MJHA.3764@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> My friend Bob called me last week with a strange problem and asked for
> help, but I'm clueless at this point. He's running XP professional and
> IE7 cat 5'ed to a router. He lost the ability to connect to regular
> websites. I suggested he replace the Ethernet card in the PC and the cat5
> cable which he did, but that didn't help. It still only connects to
> secure websites. The router is wireless and the laptop downstairs is
> working normally in that it connects to all sites.
> Any suggestions much appriciated.
> Al
>