AOL problems and/or firewall activity???

[mildwin]

Since Saturday we have been unable to access some websites: some take ages to load, others (mainly secure) one do not load at all. Contacted AOL, they say a number of AOL members have been affected & that it is a fault their end. Fine, I thought! But have noticed unusual firewall activity since this issue started. Now, I am not up to speed with firewall, etc. But we have Norton 360 All-in-one security, up to date definitions, etc. The activity says severity is just 'info' and says things have been detected. Lots of things 'preparing to access the internet' even before we have turned on router or broadband. Any ideas would be much appreciated as we are wondering if the 2 problems are linked, firewall activity & AOL problems, if so how? And whether we should be concerned with the firewall activity we are seeing.
Thank you