Internet Explorer 9 hoses up network connection

Hi all, one of the Windows 7 machines in our household is a desktop that has a hardwire LAN connection to our router. It was running fine until sometime in April, when Windows Update automatically installed "Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems" dated 4/5/11. The next time the PC started, it couldn't see the Internet, and the network adapter was shown as nonfunctional. We used System Restore to roll it back before the IE9 install, and it worked fine again.

We use only Firefox, never Internet Explorer, on this PC, so from our point of view keeping the version upgraded is not a priority. The machine has IE8 on it, but it's never been used.

For the time being we put Windows Update in manual mode, and are allowing other updates to be installed but not IE9. It's a hassle to have to do this. Any suggestions for how to resolve this so that we can start accepting updates automatically again?

Right click on the IE 9 update, and choose "Hide" and you will never be prompted to install IE9 again.

Thanks. Does that only work if we're manually approving updates, or will it work if we reenable automatic updates?