IE Won't Connect

I have an odd problem. IE won't connect, but, browsers that use the IE engine such as MyIE2 and Avant Browser, work just fine. I've checked my firewall settings, the host file, and internet options in IE. I also installed WinXP over the top of itself (get what I'm sayin there?), but that didn't help the problem either. And yes I had the problem before I reinstalled WinXP again. I did try searching the MS knowledge base, but didn't find anything that helped me. I'm really stuck on this one...any ideas?

 

First have you tried just disabling your firewall, i have had this problem that Zone alarm wouldn't let IE threw even when it was set too.

 

yea that seems to be the problem...but I tried another firewall and it did the samething. I also try an older version of my sygate firewall (which i had no problems with in the past) and it did the samething.