Thanks, Ray, for the tip but I finally, sort of, found the problem with my hosts file. I had flailed around with it several times with no real progress but this time I went back to an older version and it now works. Now I need to figure out why it was a problem, and that is a problem in itself as there are 15,000+ lines to compare.
I think I got some malware a while back while visiting a web site that had been compromised that injected things into the hosts file but did not affect anything else given the various protections I have in place. No matter how many protections one has in place they are always a bit behind because they have to find the problems and update their scanning files to the new risks. Even heuristic approaches need updating for new hacks when some clever nut figures out a new hack.
Oh, well. Computers save us so much time, don't they?
Best,
Allen
