>I didn't have time to work more on this in the last week. The process of reinstalling everything is something I cannot do presently for several reasons. If I really cannot find what is causing all this, I will send it at the shop and hopefully they'll be able to handle it as they are much more specialized than me in all this.
>
>However, here is the list of factors that I have seen since the other week:
>
>1. windowsupdate.com or microsoftupdate.com does not work. After having downloaded all the files, it tries to install and fails with the message saying that the updates were not installed. However, I can install an update if I go get it manually from Microsoft site and process it manually.
>
>2. Every morning, except once last week, my Internet connection goes down. It also went down last week in the evening. There seems to be a timer that it will do that on a regular basis. If is not related to a timeout. I also had it that evening when I was working.
>
>3. Outlook icon is permanent in the tray. Before the reinstall, it was not showing there. However, I believe that one should be removed as soon as the Microsoft updates files installed.
>
>4. SpyWeeper always report that it cannot send a report on an occasional basis. However, I believe this is always related to point #2.
>
>5. Outlook is much slower so as several other things. I believe this is related to the constant activity of the windows update always trying to download the files again and doing some kind of backend processes.
>
>6. Windows VPN does not work. But, that is the source of all this. It stopped working before we reinstalled XP.
>
>What I did:
>
>I tried to reboot several times, by changing something in MSConfig, without McAfee and SpyWeeper. This is not a factor. I also rebooted several times without any other services than Microsoft. But, this was always the same thing. There is a security in place, and that would be Windows based, which is blocking all this. But, this is for sure directly related to the windows update.
>
>About the Windows update, I was never able to get the ActiveX prompt dialog to appear. So, that is probably the source of that specific problem.

Has your ISP changed its service?

- periodic loss of service could be the ISP changing your IP address (if you have a dynamic IP). If that's the case your network equipment (e.g. router) probably needs to be configured to use DHCP to pick up the new IP address when it's changed. Maybe your ISP has started to change its dynamic IP customers more often

- poor-quality firmware in some low-cost broadband routers can cause periodic disconnects. Sometimes this is caused by a short DHCP lease. Typical leases are 24 to 48 hours; leases of 4 hours or less are often unreliable. If your external IP uses DHCP, check the remaining lease time (typically look at the Status page, WAN information). If this is a problem, updating the router firmware may help

- maybe your ISP has started blocking ports and/or protocols, and a side-effect might be VPN failure

- have you, at any point, rebooted your infrastructure e.g. broadband modem, router(s), switch(es) etc.?