Technical,
I'm using dialup and have the the I only connect with dialup set in the options. The system just grinds to a halt, with applications locking up and explorer(the interface) ceasing to respond. I finally have to turn the system off with the power button as I can't even do the three finger salute to call up task manager. This only seems to happen when avast is doing it's background update of the signatures when first connecting with dialup. On days an update is not available or after rebooting on days with new signatures, the system is fine. In fact after I reboot the system, the update has been done. I've tried manual updates, but not when new signatures are available and it seems to go through the motions, telling me there aren't any updates. I've been using Avast on this system for some time now and the updates used to work. I'm not sure what to try as I've not added any new programs to my system. I'll try the uninstall/re-install to see what happens.
thanks,
-mark