Safari unable to use working net connection

Question

In the morning it couldn't load news feeds, then later in the day some sites would work and others would not load. By the end of the day Safari was unable to pull any sort of information from the web, claiming it was not connected. The behaviour has also spread to Dashboard widgets, iTunes and Software Update.
Bizarre? Yes, but there's more. You see, other apps can get online just fine. Mail, Adium, Colloqy, even other browsers. Also, my other Mac is working perfectly normally (I'm writing this in Safari on my powerbook, while the mini is confined to Camino).
So far I've danced all the usual rain-dances to no avail:
- trashed prefs
- emptied caches
- 'reset' safari
- repaired permissions
- rebooted many times
- rebooted modem and router
- no firewall on machine or router
- mini placed in router's DMZ
If it weren't for SU I'd say there was a webkit problem, or maybe it's just any Apple app that uses port 80? I dunno, what port does SU use? Is there a way to re-install Safari and webkit alone without doing a full re-install?
[edit] This guy seems to be having this same problem, but the solution proffered doesn't work for me (did it for him?)

Answer 1

This seem to quite common now I noticed on PayPal first.
PayPal warns its members to avoid using Safari when making transactions, since it has a distinct lack of protection against phishing – the act of coaxing a user to click on a false link on a false web page for malicious purposes. PayPal users are typical targets for phishing attempts, where the page asks users for their personal login information. Once this information is collected, malicious users have free reign over a compromised PayPal account.
According to PC World Safari is the only major browser to be vulnerable in this way.
"Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers," said Michaek Barret, chief information security officer for PayPal. "Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera."
Safari also does not support EV certificates, a relatively new standard that gives the user a visual cue that a website is valid.