Actually it's not Windows Messenger that's the issue. That's the chat gadget and I got rid of that as well....very early on. The steps for disabling that are apparently a bit different in XP Pro and include a registry edit to stop it from loading into Outlook Express. The other messenger is called "messenger service"....something totally different. I was confused about that as well, thinking the Windows Messenger was still running in the background somewhere. The "messenger service" is a special tool used, as I explained before, to carry out network and other specialized functions. Not sure how that is set up on the Home version, but probably the same. I suspect you still have that. Yes, you are correct about ICF only stopping incoming traffic. Nothing I do or initiate is suppose to be affected by ICF at all. Since I'm the only one here, that's fine. I just want to stop the door knob's who are sending me stuff I don't want. It's enough I have to contend with extra crap in my inbox. I sure don't want it on my desktop! :) Norton also has a firewall that comes with it's anti-Virus package. I'm due for an upgrade soon, so I may go that route if the ICF doesn't work.