Can't surf with Safari

Question

When I open Safari, my home page opens immediately. From there, no other sites will open. The wheel spins, but no other site comes up.
I have trashed:
com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
com.apple.internetconfig.plist
com.apple.Safari
I have emptied the cache, repaired permissions, run the monthly, weekly, and daily routines.
I am running 10.4.2; I have not upgraded to 10.4.3 because of what I have read here.
The other machines on my home network, all running 10.4.2, are running Safari quite well. It's only mine on which Safari won't change sites.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I might have to do to get Safari to begin to go to sites other than the one that opens upon launching the program?

Answer 1

OK, so we concluded your network is OK. Now as for the 2nd question, I meant you to type the following:
open "http://www.apple.com"
That is with the open before it. See if that helps.
Also, try the following:
1)Quit Safari then
2)Move the following files from your Preferences folder to, say, your Desktop:
com.apple.Safari.plist and com.apple.WebFoundation.plist
3) Start Safari
If the problem persists then quit Safari, and replace the files in the Preferences folder. Then navigate to your Library Folder, find the Folder Safari in it, move everything out, restart Safari.
See if the problem persists.
Better even, create another account on your machine, log out of your normal account, and login on the new account and try Safari there. This is probably the first step. If the problem in then persists, your Safari installation is gone haywire (small chance, but try it anyway). If the problem doesn't arise, then there is a problem with Safari files in your 'user domain'.