What is C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

Is windows\system32\svchost.exe a virus. Because I thought I read it was.
But I cannot acess the Internet without letting it acess the Internet. If it
is a virus how do I get rid of it because Norton has not detected it as a
virus when I do a full system scan. And if it is not a virus what is it's
function? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My first message I forgot the "c" in svchost.

This is not a virus . It is important Windows file . Don't trust everything
you read online . Let it go through your firewall . There are some files with
similar names but they are either not in that directory or they have a letter
different in the name , however c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe should be a
clean Windows file

Next time you suspect a file for being malware , don't be so drasctic in
your actions but instead :
1) Make sure your antivirus software is updated
2) Upload the suspicious file to Virus Total
Virus Totol is free service power by Hispasec where you can scan a
suspicious file against lots of reputable and all updated AV scanners . Then
you will be sure if the file is really clean . If a scanner displays that the
file is clean , Virus Total will auto-distribute a copy of that file so that
the AV vendor can analyze it and push an update .

[northernmaiden]

My problem is that antivirus softwware can't seem to go past this file. it scans until it hits it and then says an error has occured so I am not able to scan the rest of my computer as i do not have the option to skip that particular file.

Any ideas or help regarding how to replace the file/fix it or what might be happening?