[Comedian2004]

It does sound like a problem with Internet Explorer or the browser. Or it could be a spyware program has hijacked your browser. Since it is happening in two different ones, that is what I suspect. I would check to make sure your computer is free of any spyware first, then re-install IE 7. If you are not using IE 7, then try upgrading to it. If re-installing does not help, then try to uninstall IE 7 from the control panel, try it with 6 and then try putting 7 on.

I do strongly suspect spyware on the computer. You may also try disabling any browser add-ons, like the Yahoo Toolbar. I use Google Toolbar and have no issues, but I have seen Yahoo Toolbar do something like this.

When you tell it to use the External Browser, all OOTP does is try to launch it with the link. If spyware has hijacked the browser, then it could be trying to send information to the site that collects your browsing history to sell. Since it is a local to the computer link, it could be fowling up the spyware.