Notebook Software and How To Questions

I don't know when this stopped working, but the HP Support Assistant on my PC is useless at the moment.  I installed the latest version from the HP site (where I am now posting), and it still does not work on my PC.    The HP Support Assistant version is 8.4.14.41, Framework 12.6.14.19, Configuration Files 8.0.7144.1419.

And as a sidenote - how annoying that I cannot copy the text from the support assistant to paste in this post.  All part of the poor software HP is producing, IMHO.

Here's the issue.... I open up the HP Support Assistant, then I go to My Devices/ Updates, then  click on "Check for updates and messages".  Even though I am connected to the internet, I get the message "You are not connected to the internet."  "An internet connectivity issue has been detected....yada, yada...launch HP Network Check....yada, yada."  So I launch the check, it runs a Network Diagnostics screen, goes through whatever check it does, then results a positive "Connection Status - No issues found with internet connection."  I click on the "Network Information" button, and under the Internet heading there is a URL - www.hp.com - along with a "Test URL" hyperlink.  I click on that link I I get the message that "www.hp.com: successfully contacted".

What?

So, the HP Assistant software is telling me that I am not connected to the internet when I check for updates, or messages, or try to sign into my profile through the HP Assistant, etc,, yet the same software tells me that I am connected when I do an HP Network check.  Who wrote this code?

If anyone out there can troubleshoot this software, I would appreciate it.