Rather than rely on a software firewall ( Norton ) set up a home network ( ethernet, what we used to call a LAN- local area net ) and you will have a hardware firewall-- much better.
I purchased my Modem and my DSL service is with my local phone company, at the lowest baud/cheapest rate (please excuse my ineptitude here). Someone mentioned that it may be the problem. I'm assuming that's what you mean by ethernet (if not, I'm a total dolt)
Fiddlstix has a point about that damned MS registry-- a corrupt registry, or one that has had numerous additions and deletions can cause all sorts of weird problems.
The earlier, free versions of regcleaner were pretty good, if you can find one. Regseeker ( google it ) is what I currently use, and it does other things as well.
Well, I just ran it, and turned off my computer, rebooted and I still can't get to https sites. ARGH!
I hate to mention it, but sometimes, it's faster, and less hassle, to wipe the drive and reinstall everything. This also clears all the crud the registry's accumulated. One "hardware guy" trick? Get a new drive, set it as "master," install the operating system, then install your old drive a "slave," and all your data will be there. You still have to reinstall all your software on the master ( so it will be recognized ) and then import your data from the slave drive.
Hmmmm, I've alread wiped my drive clean twice. Also there are three issues here....
a. I've already spent gobs of money on software updates, service contract updates, etc to see if they would fix it.....so please understand my hesitation at spending even more money on something that may not work.
b. Time....I've got so much I need to do on the computer that spending so much time trying to fix this one is starting to wear on me.
c. My frustration comes from the fact that I've got 100's of music, video downloads, all my professional CEU stuff I'm working on etc. The stuff I have on my computer makes me worry about losing some of it and the time it would take to back it up.
HOWEVER, I may have to go that new drive route. I'm not completely turned off to it. Someone suggested trying a dialup ISP and see if it could be my phone companies DSL messing me up. Any ideas?
Hmmmm,
If I go into control panel, and click on 'firewall', it says it's turned off. BUT, if I go into my windows security center, it says it's still on....Norton at that!
WTF???
I missed this reply of yours ( and the wife unit is trying to hustle me out of the house, so I'll try to look at it better when I get back! )... one other thing? Just to be certain no malware is slowing or otherwise messing with your PC, try this very thorough online scan:
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/