They may be an ivilliage thing but there is obviously some way to stop or prevent them because I don't see them. I have Verizon DSL that has a pop-up blocker but I don't think it's anything fancy. I use the Google Tool Bar and it has more pop-up blocker stuff on it. I also run Ad-Aware and Spybot at least once a week and clean out my temp files every other day or so. No problems. It all only takes a few minutes to do, it's free and its worth it.

Good suggestions on the updates as well as the anti virus. I'd also recommend doing a registry scan/clean. That is how alot of the little bot programs hide themselves..can scan for free too like the antivirus Andie Here is a link that might be useful: registryeasy.com

Im not having problems anymore. There was a fake Norton Antivirus shortcut on my desktop and I dont know where that came from. I deleted that last night - so it was either that or something that was on this forum and is now gone.

Re Safari. I was thinking the ads on the right and top of the screen were pop ups but obviously they are not. Those were what I was referring to. Whatever they are they are a pain. Sorry for the confusion. I do have my "Block Pop Ups" checked under Safari. I guess I thought it wasn't working. I do get "netpics" ads sometimes when I close down Safari however. That problem isn't associated with this site.