Today, when i tried to open some of the Internet sites I received an error message:
"Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://.... and the URL"
"operation aborted"
This happens only on certain, but not on all sites
My OS is WinXP sp2 and Internet Explorer8
Please advise what happens and hoe to correct it
Thanks

For one, you should be at SP3. SP2 is outdated.

Have you scanned for malware?

Definitely update as suggested, as there may be some missing/out-of-date components that are causing the issue.

If the problem persists once you have fully updated Windows, can you list two sites that do open, and two that don't open. Perhaps there is something about the websites that is upsetting IE8.