Check out your security settings for ME. And make sure you are not using a firewall or something that filters internet traffic. For the former check out the IE internet options and check out all the tabs. And if you are using dial-up, well, is could be any of a host of problems. It doesn't connect to rd.yahoo.com (it=desktop) but does it connect to other sites? And also run a full virus scan, one I had was slowly screwing up my internet connection, because it was trying to contact something, never found out what, but with each failed connect it would try more and more. So run a virus scan.