the client's browser sends an http request to the server, to port 80 or 8080 or something. the server isn't supposed to do anything similar, is it? I just get the feeling that the loading and functioning of any requests for certain ports on the client's machine was (or is) associated with one of their commercial banners, which may access some code from a remote server. AFAIK they have disabled the inclusion of any scripts in any of the forum messages or subject lines, which was a big problem that some hacker tried to exploit in a previous bondware version IIRC.