Hello, I'm posting this before reading or doing any of the above links because this morning the problem seems to have been solved in a simple way. Since I'm using windows 7, when I tried following the instructions at post #2, I did not find the ie8 options quite as explained there. So what I did was open ie8, went to tools, options and changed the lan settings that way. At that time I was not connected so I had told ie8 to "work offline" when it came on. Now what happens this morning is that I hit "software updates" a utility in my start programs, either from windows or the manufacturer, and it tells me I was "working offline" and if I wanted to connect. Apparently some sections of the computer still thought I was offline since I told that to ie8 back then. I would have thought it would notice when I went online automatically, but it did not. Anyway, I answered yes, connect, and thought of the error. Ran Malwarebytes, hit update and it worked. This all seems rather trivial now, but I hope the experience is helpful for all in the future. I'm grateful for all your help noknojon, thank you very much.