Software unable to connect to the internet

I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Build 7600, and I'm having an issue with software being unable to connect to the internet.

Certain applications will work fine, but if I want to say - install java, I go to their page, and download the file. Download Java for Windows Firefox from Sun Microsystems

After the file downloads, it wants to connect to the internet to download the actual data. No matter what I do this installer will not download that data. I've tested this on a computer thats on my network, it connects with no issues what so ever (That PC is Windows XP x32). This is all through an ETHERNET connection behind a router. Even though I receive errors I am still able to connect through an internet browser. This only happens with certain applications.

The firewall on my Win7 PC is 100% DISABLED, and I also have IP6 disabled.

As for my network drivers - I'm using a Nvidia 780i motherboard, and using the latest vista drivers for it. This was suggested by forums to fix the connectivity spiking issue. (Where the connection would just randomly drop, and need repairing/restarting to reconnect)


Any ideas on how to fix this?

I had hesitated in making a post asking for help, seeing as how I couldn't seem to find any answers anywhere. If nobody asked before, how could anyone else know?

While researching I found myself reading someones post trying to help another user. Somewhere along the line he mentioned proxies, and I didn't even bother to read the rest.

proxies...

I had forgotten that I set my internet explorer to use a proxy. I hadn't used IE in a while and by now it was was well, dead. And since I use firefox for my basic web browsing I had never noticed. A lot of software uses IE to connect to the internet, and with my IE unable to connect - this caused the issue.

I don't know if anyone else has ever had this issue, but hopefully this will be a good reference in the event they have.