I upgraded IE from 6. 0 to 7.0 somewhere last weekend. (Was it really last weekend - wasn't it even before? Well, not sure, but anyway that's not the point.)
I tried to connect to the Internet after that. On my machine, you have to connect to a local URL that is made available by the ISP (Airtel Broadband) and then click the Connect button there to connect to the Internet. I tried accessing that URL, but IE gave the usual "Page cannot be displayed" message. I tried several times, with no luck. Finally, in frustration, I called up the ISP's call center. The service provider after a few unsuccessful trials, called up his senior technical officer, or some such thing. He returned saying that his senior technical officer, or some such thing, had said that the modem was not compatible with IE7. I thought that was strange, but accepted it at that point of time.
Today, I connected to the Net using Firefox browser. Just to check if the problem was still occurring in IE 7.0, I opened it. It immediately connected to the Yahoo News page (oh... that's because I downloaded the IE 7 installer that comes bundled with the Yahoo toolbar). "Strange", I thought, "but ya that's because it is the ISP URL that is not compatible." But a doubt nagged at me, and I still connected to the URL. And it worked!!!!
Dunno what happened... may be someone in my family did some magic.. I haven't asked whether they tinkered around.. I didn't attempt anything at rectify it though...