At my wits end!!!?

I have a Gateway GT5408. I upgraded it to 4 Gig of Ram (Max). Running Vista home Premium, 320 Gig HD, etc. etc.

I have WOW Cable internet, (the fastest they offer 6.0 - speed tests always come up 6695 kpbs download, 667 kbps upload)

I have trend micro antivirus (never any issues), ad-aware - free version (no issues) %26 Registry Booster 2 (full version) and system tweaker (full version) both with no issues.

My problem is this. When surfing internet online, system is still slow and keeps switching me to a Gateway search page error. I have no clue how to fix this. I thought I was a responsible user with all of the software protection, but something has to be wrong.

PS - I already checked the start up menu and don't have hardly anything running in the background. Also I do have 52 processes running, but I checked them all and according to definition, they all seem to be necessarry components. Someone told me it may be my WOW modem. I'm lost and looking for any help.

At my wits end!!!?norton antivirus

try temporarily shutting down your ant-Virus program and Firewalls

At my wits end!!!?security

have a chat with your isp. you are paying them for a quality service and for technical support! They will probably be able to talk you through a solution.
Try to turn off the phishing test that IE does on each page. This can really slow down performance. Note that the Internet is really being hammered over holidays as it is most holidays when everyone is at home playing with their new systems... ;)