I tried the "Network Socket Error" fix to no avail. I seem to have narrowed it down to the RPDLAgent that runs. If I kill both the RealPlayer process and RPDLAgent process in terminal, navigate to ~/Library/Application\ Support and delete the RealNetworks Folder, restart RealPlayer, choose NOT to install the Download Agent, then everything is fine.

Apparently, there is a problem with how the Download Agent actually searches for it's downloads. Almost any site that has a flash file is calling to that agent. I know that MacNN is a big one and I visit that site all the time.

In my tests, you can leave the RealPlayer app in the app folder and just not run the DL agent and everything is fine. I really think Real needs to fix this. As I have stated before, it was working in build 631. It seems that build 884 broke something.