Could any one enlighten me as to why, when using BT's Home Hub.........I can only open Firefox 's browser and not Internet Explorer......recently bought a dell laptop with xp pro.??
Any help appreciated

No idea. I've used IE with lots of HomeHubs. What happens when you try to open IE?

Browser appears........then the green blocks indicating the screen is loading just dont appear , I'm guessing they're being blocked ???

Sounds like it. But it won't be the hub.

Have you got a software firewall running on the PC (including the Windows one)? If so check that it isn't set to block IE as a program.

Failing that if you are on IE7 (and if not, why not? As it it is much better than IE6), I'd try resetting the whole program back to its defaults. You can do that with a one button click from the Advanced Tab in Internet Options. I find that often clears connection problems and is one of the things that is better in version 7.