John in Kansas...thanks..that is very helpful, and my wife & I make a very good "Jack Sprat" team, since she does DOS in her sleep..(30 years of programming)...and I can find my way around the Windows stuff that Dick G *grumps* about...(Dick...why do I have an image of Henry Ford saying "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black"?

to John in Hull and ALL...about firewalls...I use two right now.. both free, AtGuard, which has been bought by Norton and 'sort' of integrated into their NOT free system...(but there are old copies floating about, and some people still swear by it...like me..*grin*).....also ZoneAlarm ,which is probably the most used.

But I am about to try a VERY highly recommended program called Tiny Personal Firewall which is free for personal use, and gets rave reviews form those who try all theses things///