I've had this problem previusly on my classic running IBrowse. Which I thought was just the classic behaving badly. But my x86 with Firefox does the same (havn't visited AO in a long time). I sometimes have to physicly rip the USB plug of my Hi3G modem to re-establish the internet connection after posting/reading the forums here at AO. But the problem remains even if all h/w s/w have changed. Sounds familiar? Any ideas?