Ok -from the looks of it you seem to be using Windows possibly Windows rel 7.0? IE8 does have some problems with URL recognition -it sometime presents links in brown(?)
There could be some conflict with the mouse system -have you tried using a different browser -the obvious one is FireFox -although Opera is also a good bet.
As I stated above I am a Mac user and as I have retired I do not have much contact with Windows based systems.
The puzzling thing is the fact that you do have some internet -viz the fact that you are posting here -could it be that you simply are not giving time for the feed from the URL to get to your laptop? When I was "posted" to the Paris Office I used an ISDN modem from the USB port into the wall socket and I got very reasonable speeds from it.
Try a different browser and see what happens.
regards
ralph