What's causing internet connections to be refused?

[macx]

Using Netscape 7.0, Excite as a home page.

Often when trying to open Excite email, I get that
several tries before it goes thru.

Also happens when trying to connect to other sites.

I've gone into Tools to make sure the cookies are not
blocked, I've gone into Preferences/Security and selected
the option for Netscape automatically selecting the
Certificate for website that require one.

Actually, the Certificate thing and the SSL options
didn't seem to make any difference no matter which
one is selected.

I've not changed anything else in my setups or in
my security applications since before this started.
Tried turning off the firewall when having a particularly
difficult time getting into email, didn't help.

Scanned everything with everything incl HJT,and all is clean.

Any suggestions?

Frankly, this Netscape thing is starting to give me more
problems. I'm using an older than current version as the
new version won't let me use Excite for a home page.

Any good alternatives out there that aren't getting so
popular they're being attacked a lot?

Thanks much!!!

 

[Spike]

could you give examples of site's you can't get to...

More to the point, are the ads/click referrers delivered on those sites blocked in your HOSTS file. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, create a copy of the hosts file found in %systemroot%/system32/drivers/etc/. Add .txt to the file name and upload it here, and also tell us what the sites are.