finally...

[paedraggaidin]

I finally figured out what was wrong. Over the weekend I had done what good little Windows users do and installed the new security updates for Vista. Unbeknowst to me, the updates (or something) turned Windows' own firewall back on. I don't know why it was acting up...maybe it was conflicting with my own firewall, or something else, but all I know is that half the Internet wasn't working for me.

As soon as I found this and turned Windows Firewall back off, everything worked fine.

So thanks, again, for nothing, Micro$oft. You gave me two days of stress I really didn't need.