I enabled pre-release updates. Updated to 13293P. This appeared to resolve the issue until a Windows reboot. At that point I had slow or no network throughput. Web pages would not load and ping was 500ms-3000ms if it didn't just time out.
Pinging 38.90.226.39 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 38.90.226.39: bytes=32 time=3037ms TTL=54
Reply from 38.90.226.39: bytes=32 time=577ms TTL=54
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 38.90.226.39:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 577ms, Maximum = 3037ms, Average = 1807ms
I had to uninstall NOD32 and reboot. Once reinstalled and updated to latest definitions, I was back to the original problem. Once again I updated to pre-release. I could then access the problem websites until I restarted Windows again. Then I was right back to time-outs and 3000ms ping times to yahoo.com and ESET.
I removed and reinstalled and have now excluded the sites I need to access once again under protocol filtering.