Let me start a fresh post here to see if anyone besides two of us have observed or can explain this:

Under Win98v2,IE5.01 final beta,450 machine,v.90 modem,ISP connected, but no activity observed in the connection icon.

I open up IE to About:Blank, and it often takes at least 15 seconds before anything at all occurs - and no machine activity during this time at all. I can go about other business as usual, nothing else is hung up. If I go to Task Manager, it shows 'not responding' for IE - but in fact, it will open up eventually, after 15 or 20 seconds.

This began after downloading and installing various add-ons and critical updates from the MS site last week, so it's related. But what on earth could cause an empty hang like that? Baffled...