LinuxQuestions.org - ICS and 302 redirects don't mix

Problem: Sites that do 302 HTTP redirects cannot be accessed on my linux mandrake 10 laptop. The browser gets stuck saying, "Redirecting..." forever. The laptop is connected by crossover cable to my windowsxp desktop, which has ICS enabled. I get internet access through a DSL modem connected to the desktop. Most sites are visitable on the laptop, just those that do redirects such as freshmeat.net and slashdot.org don't work. All websites work on the desktop.

What I know:

-Pinging slashdot.org on the windows box or the linux box gives the error "Destination Port Unreachable." Some googling informs me that this is an error I should never get when using ping.

-However, when the windows box (the one directly connected to the dsl modem) pings slashdot.org, although it gets the error, it reports 0% packet loss. The linux box reports 100% packet loss. This suggests to me something isn't being fowarded.

-There's a microsoft knowledge base article (can't put link to here because linuxquestions.org doesn't let you post urls until you have 5 posts) that says sometimes client machines can't access different sites because they have a different mtu than the host machine. But I don't think this is the problem because the article is specific to PPPoe, which my dsl doesn't use.

What I've already tried:

-Static ips

-Turning on/off xp firewall

-Turning on xp firewall and explicitly saying all ICMP stuff is allowed

-"service network restart" then ctrl+alt+backspace, also tried plain rebooting

-Setting DNS addresses instead of obtaining them automatically. Tried this setting on both boxes and on both connections.

Thoughts:

It's possible that this isn't a configuration issue at all and is an ICS bug. Googling showed some people having similar problems but no solutions. I looked for ICS alternatives but the only modern one (for xp) seemed to be Wingate, and that will only work for 30 days without purchasing an expensive license. I need a cheaper solution. I'd also prefer not to spend money on a router, so please don't suggest it (if nothing else works that's what I'll do).

It's also possible I've misinterpreted the problem and this isn't a redirect problem but something else specific to some OSDN sites (Freshmeat and Slashdot are both OSDN).

I'm pretty much a networking newbie, so I'm probably missing something blindingly stupid, but none of my googling has helped. Not sure what to try now.

Any ideas?