If you have a commercial firewall (like Symantec), you'll probably want to turn off the WinXP firewall that is by default in the "on" position once you've downloaded the XP SP2. It might help eliminate what DMcG describes. And if you are putting old equipment or software on your new computer, visit the home pages for the various devices and software and see if they offer free updates. Those can help a lot.

SRS