Why does Internet Explorer think it is offline?

[RODGERS,RICK (HP-Cupertino,ex3)]

I am using tomcat with IE and am having problems with it. 
Every time I start IE and try and access a Java Server Page or
servlet through "lolcalhost:8080/examples/jsp" the browser first complains 
that the system is not connected to a network. I then click on
"try again" and the browser then seems to find the JSPand display it.
Is there a special setting for tomcat if the system is connected to a
hub?

Any thoughts?

Rick