I was happy with the performance of my W98SE, ETrust antivirus, ZoneAlarm,
400MMX, PII, 128meg computer, but then things started going wrong.
I started to have trouble staying on the web, getting kicked off often, and this escalated
until it was happening every 10mins or so. The usual scans revealed nothing, but then my
antivirus announced a new engine and stopped supporting the old one. After 3 weeks of
trying I managed to download it (Getting kicked off, you see) and it made no difference to
my problem.
Ah, I thought, spyware. Downloaded Spybot, used it, and then could only get as far as
my server, the machine saying I was on the web, browsers and updates saying I wasn't.

OK, Drastic measures, so I formatted and reinstalled, twice, but no difference
Took the CPU to my supplier, who put Norton through it, reported absolutely no virus,
which is rare.
OK, well overdue for an upgrade, and as I have recently replaced power-unit and
hard-drive, I bought and installed a 2.6 Asrock mother-board and PIV chip and a new
modem, just to be sure. Formatted and reinstalled W98SE (until I could get XP at a good
price.)

Great, everything back to normal, except that the built-in video-card is rubbish compared
with my old on, which doesn't fit the new MB.

ARRGHH... Slowly the same problems came back..... And spread to my son's computer,
which uses the same connection, possibly because he'd borrowed one of my Zip disks.

First sign was that ZoneAlarm went onto 'stop all internet activity' and wouldn't come
off it, so that was uninstalled, along with ETrust antivirus, and I installed PC-Cillin,
which was bundled with the MB, and has its own firewall. Problem fixed.

ARRGH. Last night I got kicked off three times, and in the end, could not get past my
server. Once again, the computer says I am on the web, the browser can't find anywhere,
and the update programs say I'm NOT on the web.

I've been told, by an experienced user, that there are virus' that cannot be removed, and
the only recourse is to throw away the hard-drive. I've also been told that that ain't so.

I don't know what to do next, apart from discarding a new hard-drive and installing
WXP. I hope I can get on long enough to post this pathetic plea for advice.

And then get on long enough to print the replies.

Regards, Chris. P.S. It works fine off the Web.