Thanks, Schmidthouse. I will have to get this thing into the shop and try that as soon as I get back on my feet.
One thing that still baffles me is...after I run a "Smart Scan" I am STILL getting the red exclamation point telling me that I have a network problem as well as that my computer needs optimization, so I am still wondering if this has something to do with my computer running slower. It seems like it's running slower now, even after I reinstalled Avast, ran a defrag with a different program, which essexboy sent me a link to (that I know works better than the Windows/Microsoft defrag program), and such.
According to Time Warner, my problem lies with the fact that I have a different anti virus program installed, rather than have what they want me to use, which is the McAfee stuff they sent me the link to download for free. I don't want McAfee though, I want to keep what I have, and as soon as I get back on my feet I plan to go with their top of the line Avast package so I can reap the full benefits of their software. Thanks so much for your help.