Fellow posters, thank you for your time and attention to my plight. I think I may have solved the problem. Firstly I would like to re-mention that my other computers were accessing and browsing just fine, so at least the problem was isolated to my laptop. My laptop is my work computer so I was very handicapped by the problem. Anyway I tried each and every suggestion given by your responses to no avail. Then on another website some one suggested going into TOOLS > MANAGE ADD ONS and disabling them all. I tried that to no avail. Then for some reason I went into YOUTUBE and tried to play a video, which it would not do because I had disabled it (Adobe). The system told me the video needed Shockwave Flash (which I had Just disabled) would I like to load/run it. I clicked yes and Voila! after installing the software and replaying the YOUTUBE link, the link opened immediately. I have been playing with (browsing) ebay, youtube, and some of my work sites with great success. So it appears my problem was a glitch in the "Adobe Flash player". I want to thank you for your suggestions because even at my old age I learned things about pinging, and other approaches to solving challenges. Once again thanks for your time and attention. DennisD

There are only 3 kinds of musicians: those that can count, and those that can't!
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