Installation problems

[MyTurn2Raise]

Alright all...I'm a bit weak on my computer skills
Here's my situation:

It appears as though my computer is having big trouble installing software that needs to communicate with/ download a few files from outside sources (forgive me if my non-computer terminology blows).

At first, I thought it was a problem with Absolute Poker
see this post


But today, I had to download a few things and 2 did not work. Adobe photoshop installation froze/spun its tires when it tried to communicate to the outside world. So did my AIM installation. Installations that just use the files on the computer or CD are going just fine.

I ran spysweeper twice and scanned with norton anti-virus...found nothing.

Regular downloads of files and browsing the internet work fine...this problem only occurs during installs.

Any ideas what is up?