Is your problem only happening in IE?  Have you tried ANOTHER browser such as Firefox?
Also, just out of curiosity, go to the following FOLDER...

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Open up the HOSTS file in Notepad, then copy all of the contents and post them here.No I use Firefox always so it can't be a problem with IE.  Plus I've tried to Ping blocked web sites with CMD but it also says CONNECTION timed out, so I'm thinking it's not a browser problem.  I also tried bypassing my router but it didn't help (the laptop gets to the websites fine wirelessly, so I don't think it's a router problem either...)  Here's the stuff inside my HOST file:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the CORRESPONDING host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# LINES or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
10.254.254.253   XdriveSomething unclear here, so...
Do you use XDrive?

Then, when I check xdrive.com IP address, it says: 64.12.156.129, not 10.254.254.253

This is what I'd do.
Write down this line:
10.254.254.253   Xdrive

Open your "hosts" file in Notepad, and delete the above line. Go File>Save.
Restart your computer.Yea I do use Xdrive (although it has started to act weird lately...it never finishes uploading, it always gets errors).  I deleted the line you told me to, but the websites are still blocked. In this case, I'd recommend CLEAN reinstall of Firefox.

Get a fresh copy of Firefox (don't install it, yet).

Get MozBackup: http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ to backup your data.

Read here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
how to completely uninstall Firefox.

Install fresh copy of Firefox.

Hey! I've been trying to do this but I didn't know how.  So I did it, but the web pages are still blocked (IE can't get to them either, so I'm thinking it's not a problem with the browser).