I just discovered something else that further confuses me, but that might shed more light on the problem:
I use a webmail service at
www.fastmail.fm It's one of the sites I've been able to access without a problem. There is an option to login through either a secure https channel or a regular login. I have been logging in through the secure https channel . I just tried logging in through the regular non-https login was not able to access the site! I got a blank screen and the hourglass. Finally, after about 15 or so minutes I got a "The page cannot be displayed The page you are looking for is currently unavailable" message. Then I tried logging in again through the secure channel and got connected immediately!
Thank you for your assistance.