Reformat Home Slow Internet Connection

I posted this under the software thread as well, but maybe this is a more appropriate place.This is the deal. I got on here a while back because my parents suffered a lightening strike which rendered their computer worthless.After the great input on here, I replaced the PSU and the motherboard and blam, $140.00 later the computer started.However the internet connection (cable broad band) was so incredibly slow it would not open any web pages other than something simple like: Google.com or yahoo.com, etc. Click on a story or the weather and nothing. So I contact the internet provider (Insight Cable) and talk with their tech support that ran multiple tests. They seemed to think that there was a virus problem.

I ran the parents ZONE ALARM and it found 85 virus and 19 spy ware programs. It could not treat or fix the viruses.My parents are elderly and only use the computer to check email and cruise the net. They are completely computer illiterate. They may have inadvertently been cruising the net with Zone Alarm turned off.Today I loaded the Dell XP, OS, disk. I did not repair; I formatted the hard drive and loaded everything back onto the computer, i.e., drivers for video, sound, Ethernet, etc.I loaded the cable modem drivers and established a connection.