IE has an annoying problem on my PC (XP SP3). I start it and try to go to Google (for example) and it'll sit there saying "Connecting" but nothing will happen and it doesn't matter how many times I try, it won't connect to anything.

I discovered that if I kill IE and restart it then it might start working (and then it'll work every time). It might takes 3-4 restarts (of IE, not the PC) to get a working IE.

Now I wouldn't normally care about this since I use Chrome but a lot of things use IE by default like Windows Update and the online help in Office 2003 so I would like to fix it.

Interestingly, my work laptop, which is running Windows 7 RC 64-bit, has exactly the same problem (completely different network and everything). I'm utterly convinced it's not a network or hardware problem but some software problem.

Edit: More info.

• It's IE8;
• No add-ons;
• Automatically detect settings is not enabled.
• It is set to "Never dial a connection".