Louie -

Most email servers send the titles of all available messages first, then "fill in the text." If you select a message, it will take priority and be "rushed" through. Otherwise, it takes a bit, depending on connect speed for all of the message body to actually get to you.

If you're using Outlook Express and have Norton AV, the first copy is the "title" that gets there before the entire message gets downloaded. If you click it, the "real" message will be downloaded.

The second copy is the "real message," but it comes from your AV after the messge has been scanned.

I suspect that other browser/AV combinations may have the same effect.

Usually, if you "let it sit" for a while, the list gets "consolidated" and the duplicate copy will "go away" without action by you, at least for the OE/Norton combination. Thus if you're on a "permanent hookup" or "scheduled email check" that downloads mail on a schedule and gives it time to "clear" the AV before you go look at it you may never see the duplicate copies. If you only download the email when you're ready to look at it, they're a real p.i.a.

This happens only with "html" mail. A POP3 server generally sends each message sequentially, and you don't see it in the Inbox until the whole thing has arrived, via the route through your AV. With html service, they send the "list of messages," then - if you're using a web browser - all the advertising, and only then (unless you've clicked a message to open it) they send the actual messages. OE, and a few other "email browsers" get the "double listing."

Feel good about it. It proves your AV is working. Laugh with me. Most "free email" services don't support POP3 and/or "email browsers" like OE. We kept our "charter MSN" service POP3 - against constant MSN demands that we switch it to an html server, simply because MICROSOFT recommended using POP3 for security for businesses communicating with them. MSN just SLAMMED US with a switch to an html server. There are very few POP3 servers left anywhere because of the inability to put the ads on POP3.

You shouldn't see the double messages if you use your web browser to get your mail, but you have to put up with all the "dancing ads" and other garbage at the email websites that way (along with some other annoyances.) If it's popped up recently, it probably just means your email has been moved to a different server that doesn't support "email specific" browsers, possibly without telling you it was being done.

John