Various questions:
FIRST--you should find out how to reinstall your networking if it gets buggered, eihter by reinstalling it or by downloading a winsock repair program such as LSPfix.
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...have you tried using a Mozilla-based browser (Netscape, Mozilla or FireFox) and setting the domain name (edge.r4u.com) on the cookie block list?....
...do you use internet explorer for surfing? (you shouldn't!)
....do you have any desktop feeds installed (stuff like weatherbug.com that sends content to an icon in your systray/on your PC)
...do you have any special "toolbars", "helpers", "plugins" (out of the usual Real, Quicktime, WMP), ect.
...do you have a firewall program running so that you can detect programs attempting to make outbound connections? (you should do this, even if you have a hardware router like me)
...if you are running WinXP, have you gone through the [administrative tools]/[services] and looked for anything odd and set it to "manual start", and then tried rebooting?
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