Debugging the sudden lack of network connectivity:
Symptoms: I first noticed that my IE couldn't connect to secure Websites in Hawaii,when I was connecting via Tom's WAP. When I got home, I noticed that also redirects weren't working. I installed Mozilla and Opera and was alarmed to find that they can't reach any Websites at all. I wrote a simple HttpGet program and found that my own code couldn't reach outside Websites, failing with a SocketException.
Within my own subnet, though, Mozilla and Opera can access my Websites on other machines, so the problem is not within the IP stack (which I reset, anyway, MS Article Q299357. I also deleted my network card and let it reinstall.).
Other machines on the network can access secure Websites, so the problem is not in my WAP.
Therefore: It seems that the problem probably lies in some kind of security setting. The security setting cannot be IE-specific, since it's affecting external programs. I do not have Microsoft's firewall running on this machine. The problem might be that I'm filtering outgoing packets or it might be that I'm filtering the responses...