Oh Poppi - I feel so bad for you... 2 years ago I learned how to 'Bind the Ports' in Windows. It's not hard, it works, and no one can ever get in. You'll find directions here http://grc.com Another thing that i've done is to set up a cheap 2nd system (the leftovers from upgrades), bare bones but with all my internet stuff on it. I use that to surf, so my main PC (with a fortune in software) never sees the internet. I don't use any MS products except windows, so there isn't much of an invitation to hackers. I use JAMMER to see who's scanning me, it records the ip so that you can send email to the isp along with the logs of who it is and what they're scanning for. I hope this helps a little, and I hope you find out what happened to your stuff. I'd be ready for a straight jacket if that happened to me.