LH, I think you may be missunderstanding part of the situation.

I can't vouch for everyone in this thread but at least Nicole and I are not talking about annoying pop-up ads that come up when you view a web page. These are irritating things abusing the Windows Messaging System. The ones I've got have been little grey boxes with messages like "Hi, I'm xxxx, I'd really like to meet you. My website is xxxxx" together with OK and cancel buttons.

I'm not sure what you consider nececcery or unnecessary but I would consider a firewall necessary (and there are free ones out there). There are people out there all the while scanning ports and looking for ways of using other's computers for thier own ends...

Jon