This is a security matter that all internet users should be aware of and concerns the activities of a company called aureate.com which has installed spy software in possibly millions of computers. This software allows it to monitor users activities on the internet without the knowledge of those users. There have been rumours about this for a number of weeks at various forums on the web and it now looks like there is a substantial amount of truth in them. The spy software is installed by programs such as Go!Zilla, CuteFTP 3.0 and many others, often available as free downloads or in magazine software tryouts. The activities of the spy software have been described by some as most closely resembling a Trojan Horse. For full information on this go to www.nls.net or go directly to the page: http://www.nls.net/netlink_has_learned_of_an_activi.htm and: http://federalcourts.com/federalcourt/News/lostincyberspace_feb242000.html It is impossible to manually get rid of the offending dll.s, however a security specialist, the Gibson Research Corporation (http://grc.com/), has developed an application called OptOut that will detect and remove them. (note that in some cases using OptOut and getting rid of the offending dll.s will disable the program as well) go here for this: http://grc.com/optout.htm I hope no one minds me posting this information here but I feel it is important and could not think where else it should go. STORM