Many readers here have limited experience and limited knowledge. I believe responses from the more knowledgeable people should avoid strong, unfounded biases. There's no place for doing that with a beginner level audience, they (like you) may not have the time, interest, or ability to reach their own conclusions. I don't make it a point to find issues to quibble about, but it does seem you don't like it when people don't share your opinions. I try to present balanced views, keeping in mind that some people may know nothing more than what they've read in this forum. MS Internet Explorer is reported to be the most widely used browser in governmental and business use. They take that responsibility seriously, because an awful lot of essential stuff relies on it. To suggest that some grandma somewhere should worry about using the latest update to play tic-tac-toe is simply silly. And no, I don't have to have the last word.

I truly appreciate all your help mikie!It is so difficult for me to explain exactly what is going on.I only know computer basics and just enough terminology to be confusing. LOL Currently,I am connecting to the internet by going to Earthlink.net and clicking on the set up button. I am accessing my e-mail through Earthlink.net, too. That is the only way I can connect to webpages.I can no longer connect using on desktop icons or by going to internet connections. The problem started when I allowed a Belkin auto setup to program my wireless router to my computer. Even if I disconnect the router and try to connect the way I did before the router I still can not connect through my computer. The only reason I mentioned proxy server was that when earthlink had me join teamviewer4, teamviewer4 stated I was on a proxy server and that I needed to connect with my computer connection. I am basing my statement on that info. I may not be on a proxy server. Is connecting through Earthlink.net connecting to a proxy server? I have not called earthlink back yet as the tech seems to get frustrated with my problem before it can be corrected. Also, it is a minimum 1 hour call each time.

I would be curious about how many bytes ccleaner removed, if you remember. Ccleaner mostly just removes temporary files that your browser has saved into folders from every webpage you load ... and cookies too. Nearly all webpages and their graphics & scripts are saved 8 duplicated into cache folders. They are saved so your internet connection doesnt have to download the same pages over & over as you visit those sites again unless changes are made on the page. Then they save the changed pages into different cache folders.. adds up to a whole lot of pages for the browser to keep track of over time. Often the database files & folders/files in the cache ..get mixed & screwed up. One thing I might first try, after running a full virus/spyware scan, would be to download the current version of firefox & once that is on the computer, uninstall firefox. Then reinstall it after a restart. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Hi, all you nice people who tried to help me. I decided since nothing else worked, I'd have to install a new network card, as suggested. A younger friend came over and did it for us, out of the kindness of his heart, but still no results. He took the computer away and had another friend work on it, and at HIS house, it did connect to the Internet. Long story short, the trouble turned out to be that the router would no longer work with my computer, and when a new one was installed, the problem was fixed. Since these friends were very, very busy for several weeks, I had to rely on my husband's computer for the Internet until the two friends had time to spare for mine, and I certainly do not begrudge the wait. Now everything is running fine. I'm sorry for not reporting on this and thanking you all immediately, but certain other situations had arisen that kept me so busy that I forgot a few things I meant to have done sooner. My only guess about the router trouble (I tested and found all the ports on it were still working just fine for my husband's computer.) is to wonder whether it could have been caused by my unplugging the ethernet cable from my computer a number of times when we were going to be away and there was a possibility of thunderstorms. I recall a box popping up requiring me to make choices about a network, which I didn't understand, because we have no network that I know of. We only plug into the same router and our computers are not connected in any other way. But I mention this in case it makes sense to someone here who knows computers, so that you can help someone else if they have a similar problem. Again, many thanks.