You might cut down on the crap by disabling ActiveX controls in Internet Options, for starters. Then disable the automatic installation. And then install Opera. :-) If you want, I can dig up an article I wrote couple of months ago on Windows XP tips and tweaks. There was a lot of security tips. No, I don't know them by heart. :-) But I can send you the links. And you can download some testing programs at Steve Gibson's page: http://grc.com/freepopular.htm BTW, Catlin, they want to learn the Netbios name of your computer. That would make it possible for them to connect to your computer and do quite a lot of things.

-- erlik