Hi folks, just saw the part about pop-up blockers. I would like to mention a couple of items that have worked for me. The first is called No! Flash. Unfortunately, I don't have the addy, and the little box at the bottom says I can't send attatchments. Anyway, look for it, and give it a try. As I said, it worked great for me, it's caught everything so far, I haven't seen one pop-up since it was installed.
The other is a simple regestry fix to stop this new messenger service that has been popping up lately. You can get the fix on
http://winxp.bink.nu. Just scroll down the opening page, and you will see it. Since I installed them I haven't seen ad 1, a true blessing.