If you install the latest version, it should recognize that there's a version installed and upgrade it. As far as Zonealarm requiring you to let Firefox access the internet, that's actually a good thing. I think the version that costs money is preconfigured with certain applications and their signatures so it's easier to use. Forewarned is forearmed: any time a program that access the internet is upgraded, you'll need to give it permission the first time it runs. This is also a good thing. Years ago (probably around 2000) some security expert discovered that all the firewalls except zonealarm could be bypassed by naming a malicious program iexplore.exe. Zonealarm recognized that it wasn't the valid iexplore and blocked it. Now they all have this feature. The key is that you can't just always allow an executable whose name you recognize access the internet. If you didn't install any upgrades, patches, etc, you shouldn't get a message that the program has changed. Note that IE is often upgraded with Windows updates. One other note is that sometimes Zonealarm gets a little aggressive in blocking access. If you share devices on your network, you may need to designate it as a trusted zone. I do a lot of work with various VPNs and sometimes I need to set them up as trusted zones so Zonealarm will treat them as LANs. One other note on Ravencajun's advice that if you don't know for sure, don't allow the access, you may want to leave the "remember this setting" unchecked when you disallow access the first few times, just in case it's something that does need access and you just don't recognize it. There's a way to change these settings after the fact, but IMO it's easier to do them using the popup boxes.

This is weird. My problems all happen when using our home wifi connection. Last night I couldn't scan with MWBAM, Avast said it was not connected properly, and only Scotty was on patrol! I couldn't even access this site, although others loaded very well. But working at site this morning on a different modem, no problems at all! Everything works as it should. Do routers/modems have security protection settings?

Yes, I can't believe it either, because normally I don't do backups very often. Some 6th sense? Interesting experience with the Avira boot disk. First I had to find the English flag to get the text off German. I got this message: checking master boot record of drive 128 error (2): cannot read record. same message for drive 129. Then I clicked on "Run scan" and it scanned only 799 files. It read: Finished scanning - Last object /media/Devices/hdd/licenses/gpl-2.txt. That's it. I tried to boot up again and got the black screen with the choices for Safe Mode, etc. It would not go into any mode given, just kept showing the HP splash screen and then returning to the black screen. During this time, I heard clunk, clunk, clunk. So I'm sure the HDD is dead. I do not want to buy another computer until a few months after Windows 7 comes out, so I'm wondering about replacing the hard drive on this one. I think I could do it (fingers crossed), but I will need some help. I don't remember the brand of the current drive but I know it is a SATA drive at 7200 rpm. Is there anything else I'd need to know to buy another one? I think I have some information about doing this in the books that came with my computer, and I'm sure I can follow printed instructions. This will have to wait a while as we are leaving this weekend on vacation and will be gone two weeks.

Nearandwest, you have discovered the best forum on GW. The great people here have helped me out of so many problems, I couldn't even list them all! Its embarrassing, but each time I think I have learned everything, my computers hit me with more. It is an ongoing, learning process. Owbist...good minds think alike. I am only doing this to learn something about cleaning out nasties. Believe me, I told him to come for help and get his computer fixed, but he didn't...he started using my computers. That was the 'straw.' I'm not sure if I can use MS Security Essentials on his XP machine. It is 4 yrs old. Raven, you have the patience of a saint! He uses his computer in his office and I am rarely in there unless he yells for help with something. As a result, I think he would receive notifications of updates and just ignore them. There is no other reason for some versions of software being so old. I have been cleaning up his machine all weekend and discovered Spywareblaster hadn't been updated since 10/09. I downloaded Secunia and he had so many old and dead versions of things its ridiculous. I am setting everything to automatic. If I can run MS Security Essentials, I will. I ran MWB and it found 2 infections. I'm now running ESECT again and so far it has found another Trojan. So I guess I'll wait for Corinne to return and continue to work on it. At least its working and I'm able to see everything again, plus I can update things. Thanks for your support, this is certainly an interesting experience. Jane