Can't view/access encrypted sites HELP

[koinhelgo]

Various sites I buy things from take me to a 128 bit encrypted site- but when I try to access these sites from my home pc it doesn't display anything. My sons pc is exactly the same- we both are running XP.
I can get access no problem from my work pc to these sites.
However I have no problem accessing my paypal account or normal password sites and I have just noticed that the PAypal site "says" it is 128 bit encrypted.
Other sites we have problems with are my sons university account - he has to access it via his girlfriends pc. I also can't get acces to the Netgear registration site (www.netgear.com/register)
When I put in the netgear address it brings up the redirection page then it stalls- clicking the link still does nothing.
This is the same whether I try to access the sites via Internet explorer or my AOL account.
As far as I can tell my internet options are the same on my home pc as those on my works pc. I have tried the Msoft data base and did all it suggested- clearing cache and cookies etc and SSL2 and SSL3 are already enabled - I even tried enabling TSL. I have also tried disabling SSL2 and SSL3, (but then it wouldn't access normal enrypted sites either) and then re-enabling.
Nothing I do seems to help.
It was suggested to me that it might be my firewall (Zone Alarm), but I have tried with it disabled and there is no difference. My router has a hardware firewall but I can't see that making a difference as I have inbound traffic set to allow.
My Internet Explorer version is
6.02900.2180.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158
and it says cipher strength is 128 bit.
I can go on Internet Explorer independently of my AOL account because of my router.
I run AOL version 9
which says
Includes encryption software from RSA Security Inc. © 1994 RSA Security Inc. All rights reserved.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this - it's very frustrating- especially when I have to purchase things online at work - which I'm not really allowed to do, or I have to phone the company involved.

[ofbarea]

I do not know how to fix MS explorer, but as a workaround you can install mozilla firefox and try with that.

http://www.mozilla.org/