Trouble Downloading

So, if you try to DL something, what happens? Do you get an error message? What message?

yup, thats what happens when you start using microsoft software... bad, bad calliopenjo

I'm guessing you're seeing a beige bar near the top of the screen that starts out with "Pop-up blocked.

You need to right click on the bar, and select "Temporarily allow Pop-ups"
Then click the "Download Now" or whatever you had clicked to download the program.

Shortly after, your screen will darken and a message will display asking you to confirm that you want to download this potentially dangerous software. YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING before clicking yes. There's a lot of malware and Trojans out there, that your AV program cannot stop if you intentionally download it.

Good luck.

It has nothing to do with your browser if AVG can't update. AVG doesn't use a browser to go online. Possible culprits are firewall, router, or maybe a virus that block AVG, in descending order of likelihood.
Still, i recommend checking the virus possibility first since it's the easiest to check. Download a new copy of AVG from the website and install that, and run it.
If that doesn't work, close all programs, especially browsers, and deactivate your firewall. Then run the AVG update to see if it works. Reactivate the firewall before you go online again (or just reboot). If that helps, your firewall blocks AVG update for some reason.
If that doesn't help either, the router might not forward the ports AVG uses to update. Seems unlikely if it worked before, unless someone fiddled around with the router.

On an unrelated note, if you're checking out browsers anyway, i recommend sticking with Firefox instead of Chrome (or even better, use Opera).

I agree it's not your browser. Have you checked to see if AVG has somehow gotten on the Blocked list for the firewall?

I don't want to alarm you, but if it's not the firewall, it might be something more sinister. It's worth looking into as soon as possible.

A few years ago, my mom's machine was infected by a virus that modified the "hosts" file. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file))

Basically, it told the computer that it was not allowed to connect to any website related to any of the major anti-virus suppliers. The security software could not be updated, and it was impossible to visit websites like http://www.sophos.com/ and http://www.kaspersky.com/ to look for information on the virus.

I'm not saying that's what's wrong, but it's worth looking into. Just in case...

Well, as long as you didn't get screwed charged too much -- or left with a rootkit.