Microsoft Office Outlook Program, Error Message Options

[megznlee]

Hello

I am running Windows Vista. I have AVG Anti-Virus (free edition) and Spybot-SD Resident installed.

I can not seem to auto-connect to any sites for microsoft or spybot-SD (it tells me that there is a connection problem but not sure what it might be - I can connect to any site (manually)that I need to).

The PC advises that it is unable to auto-connect to microsoft.com for auto updates. Windows defender tells me that it can not connect to get known updates. I then click check for updates, it tells me that it is working fine and checking for updates, and then 2 minutes later tells me that it is unable to connect to check for updates.
The windows update tells me that the firewall is probably blocking the microsoft websites, but I am not running one (that I am aware of) so not sure what is happening there.

Microsoft Diagnostics tells me that it can not connect to the servers.

Also, I have just started getting the following error message (every 10-15 minutes):

Microsoft Office Outlook has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

I can still get email and everything seems to be working, its just the error message and the inability to auto-connect.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Moved topic from XP to the more appropriate forum. ~ Animal