Web connections outside IE Explorer (e.g. Media Player)

Can anybody help. I have a problem commecting to the web
via media player and through other bespoke software which
relies on a web connection.

In media player this manifests itself in an error page
appearing under the title "this page cannot be displayed"
when trying to retrieve album info.

I have checked connections details under Internet options
which seems ok and have tried switching off my anti-virus
software with no impact.