Are you by chance running a newer IBM laptop, such as the T43 ? I ask because I was thinking I'd lost my mind when my work machine seemed to spontaneously override many of my network and browser settings without warning...
Once I figured out that the IBM connection manager was actually set to override those settings, I started to calm down a bit. After I calmed down, I figured out how the little bugger works, and now I love it!
-PatP