Clickthrough Hotel WiFi Access Page, and Sparkle I'm currently at a hotel that forces you to click through an "accept screen" before being able to access the Internet.

The way it works, as best as I am able to tell, is;

When you make your first port 80 HTTP request after joining the wifi network, the proxy server intercepts your request, and takes you to a screen in which you must read the terms of service, check a box, and click the submit/accept button.

The problem is that it does this only for first request, then denies all additional port 80 requests, and disallows all other requests until then page is acknowledged.

The issue at hand is that this page only appears for the first HTTP request, and with the myriad of sparkle-update powered software I have running, I'm suspecting that the confirmation screen is being delivered to one of these apps, instead of too my browser.

I've tried logging in with holding shift after entering my password (disables login items) which disabled everything except for MenuMeters, and still I could not get the foxy confirmation screen to come up.

I rebooted into safe boot mode and was able to get the confirmation screen to come up. So I rebooted normally. Unfortunately, I could not access the internet after doing so, and I suspect the confirmation screen once again became trapped behind a menu bar app.

Is there some step I'm missing that may drastically reduce the difficulty I'm having with this confirmation step?
What about an application level firewall like noobproof(free) or little snitch(paid) to block any requests and then only authorize your web browser?