SRS...yeah, and if it can happen to someone like you, who is pretty computer literate, think what is happening to folks who wouldn't know a byte if it bit 'em!....I get those "blah,blah wants to connect to your PC at port 1234" or "Program XYZ requests outgoing connection to send a datagram..." unless I know exactly what they are doing, the answer is "no"..if it is important, they'll try again.

The better firewalls will keep a log, if you ask 'em, of all the traffic for 'x' number of days, and you can go read it at your leisure and do some deciding. Some of those requests are just random 'door knocking', looking for a place to sneak in, some are spy programs trying to send messages out...and some ARE just benign attempts to do an update, or to access a CDDB file for a music program (but these you can make rules allowing activities you approve of)...

It's really tedious having new problems to fight every year, and I can't comprehend what the makers of intrusive software hope to gain by pissing everyone off!