Well I just got a call from my cable provider and they are going to try to get my problem fixed. They think the problems may reside in infrastructure maintained by Level 3 Communications. This agrees with what I see when performing a traceroute back to Mudcat.

Kat, You might try this: bring up a DOS shell and, at the C:\ prompt, type tracert followed by the site you're trying to visit (e.g. tracert www.tripod.net) and wait for the trace to time out. This will give you some idea of where, on the Internet, your problem exists. You might need to use the IP address instead of using Tripod's domain name. In that case, try using Ben's phaster online web utilities and use the domain name to get the IP address.

Who knows, you might find that your problem is with Level 3 Communications as well.

Oh, and one more thing. Anyone trying out my advice from home should first have a good personal firewall product installed and configured. Hitting these sites might start to make hackers aware of your existance and you'll start to get unwanted hits on your PC from all over the world. This isn't worrisome unless you normally engage in unprotected Internet use. So remember, always wear, I mean use, a firewall.

Be careful out there.

      - Mark