Many times, when I click on a link, or even a Favorite (ironically many times when going to bing.com), the tab just shows connecting, but notung happens. When I try the same in a different tab, sometimes the 3rd or 4th eventualy loads the page.I have the same issue also sometimes when following links, e.g. when doing research. Sometimes I cannot get to a certain page, until I close and reopen IE. Frequent enough to be a pain!What can that be? Firewall? Defender?

I think I may have found the culprit: AVG Link Scanner.I have disabled it now and am monitoring to confirm success. No more hangs so far.

Confirmed fixed. Disabling AVG LinkScanner has fixed the issueUpdate July27, 2009: A new AVG Update (build 392 of LinkScanner) seems to have solved the issue also. I have reactivated the LinkScanner and have not seen the hangs coming back so far.