Hi Lindsay,
What firewall do you have? Have you tried turning it off?
It is also possible that some evil spyware made you connect via a proxy server.
To check if this is the case open Internet Explorer, click Tools, then Internet Options. Select the Connections tab then click your connection in the list and click settings.
Uncheck "Use a proxy server for this connection" and click ok twice.
Download, install and run Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy and check your pc for virusses.
Good luck and hope this helped,
Sjoerd
edit:
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