its crazy. ive got a similar problem.. i have reloaded xp 3 times now.. even today i did a full reload with FULL format.. still cannot access hotmail, myebay, yahoo mail or any sites that seem to need to transfer files etc. what the **** is causing this problem? ive noticed a few other people have the same or simlilar issues.. there is NO spyware on my system.. even with a clean load of XP, (no sp2 no other programs ) i still couldnt access these sites.. ive tried a proxy server..nothing.. its not a ISP problem as i can use my laptop thru my same network with no problems.. does anyone have any ideas here?