Finally got a tech support rep (Dell Support) who understood my PC problems.
I had come to the conclusion on January 1 it was because of the XP service
pack I decided to install but I couldn't lay my hands on my XP CD (if in
fact I even got one with the PC, it's been a couple of years now).  So I
contacted Dell Support and they said they'd send me a CD.

Got a call back around 4:30 this afternoon from Dell support verifying they
have put a CD in the mail to me.  But he (a different guy) asked if I
wouldn't mind running down the scenario of my issues for him.  I did and he
said well why don't we just do a system restore from Windows?

I am NOT a Windows guru.  The software I supported for years ran under Unix
and all my troubleshooting was done on that level.  There was a Windows
interface so our end users would never have to know it was running on an
opsys they'd never heard of.  But I've never had to learn the ins and outs
of Windows.  Anyway, long story short, he had me run the system restore
utility and set it back to the end of November just to be sure.  In it's
(corrupted) state that took a while but the man was very patient and stayed
with me through the process.  Now applications open at tip-top speed again
and I even got my old DSL modem back.  I don't think I want to see that new
Ethernet modem BellSouth they sent me for quite a while, even though it
wasn't the source of my problems.

When I think of the hours (nay, days!) I spent dinking with this... well,
let's just say thank goodness for this one Dell Support guy who understood
what I was saying (even if he is in India) and got my PC back to "normal".

Purrs for anyone who needs them since newsgroups and email have been
problematic since December 30th.

Jill