Just a quick report back. I have run the tests as suggested and everything is OK (Stealth on everything). For my own curiosity, I tried the tests without Zone Alarm running and to my horror, discovered I had the infamous Windows File and Print sharing enabled. Must have been an oversight/sheer carlesness on my part when I recently put Windows 98 on.

As regards alerts, I have recieved about 20 messages (in addition to the ones that the tests were obviously going to cause) that indicate another site has tried to gain access to my computer between this post and my last post - scarey!!!. If anybody is still wondering whether to try it or not, my 2d worth is do so and whatever the overhead is, I haven't noticed it in terms of performance - from what I understand from my reading at Sheilds Up, forgetting access to personal files, someone else could be using your PC as a server - that probably does carry a far greater overhead.

Jon