Discussion on:

Outlook has recently stopped allowing urls to to connect to internet

Outlook 2003 or XP (regret do know which is involved) used to allow urls inside an email to connect to the internet when clicked but a change in the setup or security settings now prevents this occuring. When url is clicked the computer appears to start looking but never returns with the url open. Reget dont know what happens next , as working second hand. No error msgs have been reported onscreen, will check log file when I get a chance. TIA

If you have default browser set to Firefox, not sure how links in email will get handled

Start IE. Go to Tools> Internet Options> Programs tab. Choose Reset Web Settings. Click OK and close the dialog. Go to Start/Run, type this command and press Enter:
regsvr32 /ishdocvw.dll

Also, check this KB310049 article.