Pinecone, I have known people who just use the built-in Windows firewall, however the downside is it does not monitor outbound traffic. I would like to think that most, but not all, people would agree that a third party firewall that monitors both inbound and outbound traffic is the best way to go. Regardless of how careful some consider themselves to be on the internet there is always that chance of getting infected by malware one way or the other that may try to 'call home' with your personal information. http://netsecurity.about.com/od/firewalls/a/aa081804b.htm "Is there any way to know for sure what I am changing?? " As Luis stated Zone Alarm will present you with a pop-up window letting you know that an application or program wants to access the internet. It will give you the option of 'Yes' or 'No' and list the application that wants access, such as 'Internet Explorer' or whatever programs you have. There is also a 'More info' button in the alert. If the program is one you recognize and use all the time, you can click 'Yes' and select the box 'Remember this info_______' to keep from being bothered with the same request all the time. If it is a program you don't recognize I would click 'No', but not necessarily select 'Remember this info'. If the request keeps coming up and you don't recognize the program and the 'More info' button does not give you the info you need you may want to 'google' and see what it says. There are some 'Windows applications' that need internet access on occasion. Witz

oh yes believe me he does need it this type of very serious rogue does not just disappear!! Please tell him not to use any passwords with it this way and definitely not to do any type of banking or financial transactions. the fact it is not allowing him to install security programs is HELLO A HUGE RED FLAG telling him all is NOT well. I can not stress how important it is to have this pc cleaned. The forum at LzD is excellent they lead you step by step through the cleaning process running the proper scans. There is nothing that you can just run and make it go away this is a multi step process. This is the direct link to the malware removal area of LzD, register there, start a post of your own there giving all this info and the team will help. They are very patient and willing to answer all questions. If you need help along the way just let me know I am there also. Analysis and Malware Removal It is likely if he took it in to someplace to have this cleaned they would instead wipe his drive and reformat the pc and he would lose everything not backed up. So he should at the very least back up what ever he treasures that is on that pc.

See the link please, you simply uninstall IE8 and the computer automatically reverts to IE7.... Here is a link that might be useful: uninstall IE8

Yahoo does that to me occasionally while they work on the server or page coding ...or do some yahoolagans. Usually doesnt last but half day at most. Sometimes your cookies get stale. Maybe, Sign out of yahoo and delete your yahoo cookies. Then when you sign back in, maybe you'll get lucky. At least you'll get fresh baked goods.