[Dan]

I assumed as much, very few would be using the internet at 3am when we were doing this last night.

Very few, indeed Most people use the wee hours of the morning for sleeping

Thank you very much for your time and help. If I experience any other problems concerning the issues we worked to fix in this thread, I'll be sure post em', but it looks like things are all set.

No problem at all Always happy to help

Do you have any ideas as to why the issue arose in the first place?

Yes -- when malware is installed on your system, they add components to the registry which can affect your LSP and also corrupt your TCP/IP and/or Winsock protocol stack. When your anti-malware applications remove the offending material (even if they remove it immediately), they do not always repair your registry, or protocol stacks. Best case scenario will result in a laggy Internet connection amongst other things (but still with an Internet connection). Worst case scenario will result in your LSP chain being broken, which will mean that you have absolutely no Internet access, which makes fixing it very difficult (most people just end up formatting). LSPFix.exe and WinsockFix.exe are therefore two very handy applications to have on hand, as they reset your LSP chain and TCP/IP / Winsock stack back to installation defaults, which will fix the problem so long as the culprit malware has been removed.

Nowadays, most anti-malware applications are beginning to repair the registry upon removal, however it's not always possible. You were just lucky enough to be one of the 'best' (or better) case scenarios