problems: help me!!

["Noah Liberman" <noahl@dsl.telocity.com>]

Recently I was having problems logging onto a secure site, and one gave me
the message that I needed the 128-bit encryption patch for IE4.5. I
downloaded it and installed it and still couldn't get on the site. A friend
told me to download 4.6, which I did, and still I couldn't get on the site.
Meanwhile, a host of other problems cropped up. I can't download mpegs
(browser tells me "attempt to load ... failed"), I'm having trouble with my
java-enhanced sites, and when I open up Word I'm told it can't start Visual
Basic Editor because it can't find it (I can't find it with a Find File
either). Also, when I open IE, the page I have set as my homepage doesn't
load -- the browser tries but the window stays blank. Are any of these
problems related? Also, I've tried reinstalling 4.5, but that doesn't help.
Help!!!