I have a home network.
I am not using IIS.
My machine is not a web server.

I am no longer seeing the error messages related to HTTP & networking. Now I
am seeing HUGE numbers of ERROR and WARNING messages in the System and
Application logs, respectively. Different things every time. But, mostly
these two:

Detection of product '{D3386797-A836-4030-AB5D-4E89F2F15F33}', feature
'AV_DVP' failed during request for component
'{E39DB87F-D2CB-42FF-AAA4-72E708258DC6}'

and

The dvpapi service hung on starting.

My best guess is that something about the real time anti-virus protection is
missing or corrupted and that, when it crashes on startup and repeatedly
tries to load related components, it interfers with whatever driver is being
loaded or whatever services is being started -- more often than not, causing
them to fail as well.

I have been unable to find any info on the net as to whether this service is
part of Windows or another application, let alone how to remedy the problem I
am seeing. I have repaired Windows (from the CD-ROM) and re-installed SP2 and
some 40+ updates. I have also removed and reinstalled my anti-virus software
(AVG). I am currently running a number of anti-spyware programs. CounterSpy
is the newest -- replacing Aluria Spyware Eliminator.