Apps starting in Offline mode

[Ken Moffat]

After a recent reinstall of debian testing (net install) where I kept 
the same home directory from my old install, I have had the problem of 
epiphany, firefox and evolution starting up in off-line mode. Needless 
to say, I am not a fan of having to set these apps to on line mode each 
time I start them! Icedove and Iceweasel (debians version of 
t-bird/firefox) are working okay. I don't suppose anyone has a fix for 
this odd problem?

thanks,
Ken