When Vista's desktop appears, I can't connect to the internet for
about 4 minutes. If I click on IE or Outlook Express, these
applications don't appear on the desktop. Also, the Avast anti-virus
icon in the system tray says: "you're not fully protected". After
about 4 minutes of this idleness, the system shudders in to life, and
I can then use IE & Outlook Express and connect to the internet.
Also, the Avast anti-virus icon changes to "fully protected".

This Vista machine has been working correctly, up to now. However, I
did make a few changes recently. One thing I did was I tried to get
MS Messenger working, and used this command:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

This worked, and allowed MS Messenger to work.

Also, I set up MS Windows Live Family Filter. I think it's at that
stage that this connection problem has occured.

I've tried the following actions to fix this situation, without
success.

1) I'm using a wired modem, netgear DG834. It does have the latest
firmware.
2) I tried

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

3) I tried

ipconfig /flushdns

4) I tried

Deleting the content of the SOCKS field, inside MS Messenger tools/
options.

One thing I'm not sure about is what netgear modem driver I'm using.
I can't remember if I installed one, or if I'm using one supplied by
Vista. (Sorry I'm not very familiar with this Vista machine - it's
not my regular PC.)

Any ideas please people? Thanks a lot for any suggestions.