mIRC wont connect to servers and Grisoft AVG Free antivirus wont connect to
the update server now. They had been working fine previously. The only
change I had made was to download several critical updates last night.

Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Root Certificates Update Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 816093: Security Update Microsoft
Virtual Machine (Microsoft VM) Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Critical Update for Windows Media Player
Script Commands (KB828026) Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Security Update for Windows 2000
(KB896358) Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Security Update for Windows 2000
(KB890046) Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Security Update for Windows 2000
(KB896422) Web site
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Security Update for Windows 2000
(KB893066) Web site

Was some sort of firewall added? or some other change that would affect
program connectivity?
Successful Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Cumulative Security Update for Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (KB883939) Web site

I'm assuming WinXP SP2. Try checking out Windows Firewall under the
Exceptions tab. The most recent group of patches whacked a few of my
exceptions, perhaps that is what has happened to you.