It's worth mentioning why, just in case anyone else falls foul of this. When Windows loads up, because of some startup application it tries to access the internet. Because I am not connected to the internet at startup, Windows goes into "Work offline" mode (why????). Then, even when I subsequently connect to the internet, if I use IE, it is in offline mode. Firefox is immune to this nonsense. What I didn't realise is that WMP also goes into this mode but doesn't mention this. I had to go to "Now Playing" and click on the stream. Only then does it tell me I'm "offline" and asks me to "connect". Humph!
