Enhanced Firewall and Performance

When the latest update was installed last week, I continue to have MAJOR performance issues on Win10 laptop (none of these problems existed 2 weeks ago):
1. Enhanced Firewall would not turn on and had to run repair multiple times.
2. AVG VPN will not stay connected
3. internet connectivity is problematic (not my provider as other devices are working fine)

I am losing about 2 hours of productivity each day over the past week. Eventually I find my machine "settles down" and I can work for a few hours. But this is what I face every morning i open my laptop. i have been an AVG customer for several years, but am about to abandon this product completely.  
After reviewing the FAQs I am really stumped. i hope you would send out a patch to solve this but am losing patience.

Greetings,

This isn't the experience we want you to have. There was an issue with AVG Firewall previously, which has been fixed in the recent update.
As you've already tried repairing the AVG program, the patches should have applied to your program.
Since, you still experience issues, we'd suggest you take advantage of our additional support channel to sort this in a timely manner.
Before proceeding with it, let us attempt to sort the network issues, so that there will be no difficulties for the concerned team to help you.
Please disable AVG Secure  VPN & check if the network connectivity is stable.
Once you find it to be stable, you can follow the steps in the email that has been sent to you.