Sometime in the last two weeks my father had overnight been unable to access MSN, Hotmail and Windows Updates. The problem also extended to him not being able to connect to me using the NTR remote connection software that we use, however he did still have VNC installed.
Once he connected to me via reverse VNC and I'd confirmed that he had made no changes to system, been hijjacked or infected. We left it overnight to see if it was a transient problem.
It wasn't. He is with AOL broadband and apparently they have have made some changes.