Big Troubles

Well. I've been bit, infected, infested, or whatever term you choose to describe something taking over my computer (I am posting this from work instead of from home). I can no longer get online at home. Oh, the computer IS connected to something on the web. For you techies out there I CAN "ping" almost any site that I choose. I can even ping my email server. I just cannot connect with any of them. I cannot get my email. I cannot visit ANY website. I can not run a virus scan on my computer. Wednesday I installed the latest, greatest Norton 360 (virus protection, firewall, online security suite, etc.). Everything seemed to go okay Thursday but when I got home on Friday I could not get online. Tried to reset the computer back to a time when things worked okay. Nope, no good!. Restored back to a month ago. Nope, no good!Restored back to Wednesday night and now the new Norton 360 is gone altogether. Won't re-install either. And now to make matters worse my wife can no longer access her email using Outlook Express and cannot log onto AOL. Everything else works for her on her computer but those items. It's like some form of "Denial of Service". I have noticed that my cable modem and routers' activity lights flicker like crazy (indicating "something", what?, who knows?). Have we been taken over by some devious "Bot" network? I just don't know.

Can a trojan, virus, or malware bot take possession of a cable modem or router? My cable modem always seems to be busy as heck even when both computers are shut down.

IS this something caused by Norton 360? Was it caused by a trojan or virus? I don't know. What I do know is that two computers at my house are about to get wiped clean and re-formatted.
Man! I hate doing this. Having to re-install programs, re-creating web links and favorites, etc.

If anyone else is having similiar trouble let me know. I'd really like to know if there is a simpler solution to this problem. I just can't afford to pay a networking or IT guy 60 bucks an hour to figure this all out.