So the one thing that sort of stands out there is that pop-ups for smilies doesn't work in IE. If you can get those pop-ups to work, that might help.

The other solution to try is to see if you have Windows firewall installed, and it's blocking communications on port 8080. If that port isn't opened on your computer (or in your house if you're connecting through some other device to get to the internet), then it won't work either.

DocJohn