In IE, under Tools, there's Options, and then there's a Connection tab. Fiddling around in there may help. At least with the versions of IE I'm familiar with.
A good diagnostic for internet connections is to open up a "DOS box" or "Command Prompt" or whatever Microsoft are calling it this week, and type the command "ping
www.pprune.org". Suggest you do this now with a working setup so you know what it's supposed to look like.