I have a SONY VAIO with Pentium 4, 1022.3MB, 3.20GHz... Im using AOL for firewall, virus protection and whatnot. i dunno what else you may need to know about my comp but anyway...

Ive been playing DAOC lately and recently during gameplay my internet connection fails and I get kicked off the game. I have comcast cable and the lights on the box never blink-out (which usually means the signal is gone.) Sometimes when i try to access this game or other online programs AOL boots up trying to connect. Is AOL jacking up my comp? Ive run virus protection and things like that trying to clean my comp but nothing has worked so far. Any ideas?

Also, if AOL is the source than i am willing to delete it. *censored*, maybe ill delete it anyway. The only thing i dont have that AOL provides is a firewall. Is the Windows XP firewall good? or are there any free ones anyone is aware of that i could use? Thx

I know this could be considered a "Game" topic but in case this is a virus i just decided to post here.Also, ive been trying to speed up my comp since ive been having these troubles lately and one tip i see is to limit the amount of startup programs. When i hit ctrl+alt+del, view the task manager, and look at the running processes i have 52 of them going on without any programs running. Can i remove those? if so, how do i know which ones to remove? thx.Update: After READING some of the suggestions on other posts, this is what ive done...

Removed:
All AOL programs and protections
All Norton Programs

Added:
AVG-virus
Prevx 1
CCleaner
Spybot
Windows XP Firewall

I Ran all of those and that seemed to speed things up abit (espescially removing AOL) but anyways...now i have a new problem.

WHen i restart/reboot my comp, a message comes up before windows EVEN opens. THis is the msg:

"Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace
Press to Run Setup"

I push F2 and get the boot-up-menu-thingy ( dunno what its called) where i can choose at the top MAIN, Advanced, Power, Boot, or Exit.
I viewd each option but just went into exit where i could either Exit and Save Changes, Exit and Discard changes, or just Discard changes.
Exitting while saveing changes brought me back to that error screen at the beginning, however exiting and discarding allowed me to get back on to my computer, where everything was seemingly back to normal.

Everytime i restart my comp i get that error, and must go to exit and discard changes before continuing bootup.That HDD is getting ready to fail....backup your important stuff immediately and use it as little as possible til you can replace it.

patio. 8-)

p.s. This may be the source of your other issues as well...grrrreeaattt...all that work to get my system to run faster and the hard drive dies. time to take it to Best Buy to get it replaced then....sigh

Thanks for the help patio You're more than WELCOME...but before HANDING it off to the Geek Squad make darn sure to backup ALL important stuff...Data disappears at Best Buy !