Thanks everyone for the links, info and ideas. And the time you took to explain those 2 "errors" so carefully is much appreciated, John! I do often interrupt those automatic updates from Microsoft, which may explain those "Firewall Disability Notifications". I'll re-check the firewall settings and registry for anything suspicious -- and remember that, as you say, Mudcat has it's own share of technical 'disabilities' too.

Dave, I use Firefox or IE, and have Norton Internet Security and Anti-Virus running at all times too - but updates do get the "remind me later!" quite a bit. Norton always finds nothing on it's weekly system scan though, and I don't seem to have problems on any other site.