cant download using ie6

for some reason i cant download anything from a hypertext
on websites using internat explorer 6. as soon as i click
on the text the page freezes. i have to cntrl alt del,
says page (not responding), and end task. wich shuts
down any explorer open at the time. some times when i
restart my computer my browser wont open anything.i cntrl alt del, it says that my pc-cillin webtrap is (not responding) . i end task on it and my browser works fine after that,except i cant download as i said . ive checked my computer with ad aware and spyhunter for parasites and found nothing ive scanned for virus. nothing . though something is running in the background opening the same popups on different pages. and whenever i try to restart or shut down i get a phantom "this program is waiting for you to respond" and i have to end task. my comouter is running win 98 se, athalon 1.2, 256 ddr, ge force fx 5700, sndblaster platinum.i have a cable modem.
im running no firewall right now i was trying to download
a replacement fire wall when i discovered that i have this
problem

 

Can you right click & save as??

 

the types of links im talking about are the type that if you right click and save as they just down load the link itself. i dont know exactly what there called. hypertext redirection protocol or something like that