I am not a computer geek so my knowledge on this subject is limited. I downloaded the free Yahoo Toolbar last year. It has a zapper on it that makes a noise when it blocks an ad - reminds me of a flyswatter killing flies. It does a good job. What is really annoying is the ads that cover up what you are reading. You have to sit there and let it go through its thing because there is no x box to kill it. I have found this mainly on newspaper sites. The Yahoo zapper doesn't kill those. I call them popovers! The forum is so slooooooooow to come up under iVillage. Also, it frequently 'forgets' me and I have to log in again. Sometimes I have to wade through all those things I never use like my page, my want list, etc. before I can get to the actual forum. I agree that Spike did a better job. Walter Moores

Try uysing some type of driftwood that does well in a humid set up, like cypress or something, also, do you have a fan circulating the air? that helps a bunch =)

A story about Angie's List. I got a freebie trial for a year when they were new to this area. So I was heading out of town, afternoon before got an oil change (quickie place, not dealer). They bunged up the transmission (forget details now but would have stopped me from making that trip). Reimbursed my money and were trying to get me to head to their 'transmission guy'. No way! A girl customer who overheard that fiasco gave me her ex BFs card, said if he couldn't help me he had friends who could. He did body work but sent me to his friend. Sweetest, kindest mechanic I've ever met. Got there at closing time on Friday evening. Still, he stayed, fixed it, and wasn't going to charge me. (I gave him money anyway.) I also gave him highest rec on Angie's List. I bumped into him a few months later. He's very laid back so didn't complain, but the poor guy had since been flooded with snail mail solicitations from AL to join and IIRC he said their fees for business owners were astronomical. He was appreciative of the review, but he was small & just starting out then so had to watch every penny. But we were both kind of surprised they'd solicit business owners that way, seems that would create bias to some extent? I didn't renew when my freebie subscription ran out, but to this day they've not stopped soliciting heavily, even after multiple requests from me to unsubscribe from their list. Aside from having "paid" members in the business community, it's pretty annoying the way they hound people incessantly, a total turn off imho.

" I scan almost daily with Malwarebytes AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware". This is waay overkill in my view. Prevention is much more effective than remediation. Install a capable and comprehensive antivirus and security system on your PC and these two software packages will be unnecessary. Adblock plus is good at keeping page renderings lean, if that sort of thing bothers you. Otherwise, just as with a newspaper or magazine, it's not so hard to just ignore the ads. Edit for PS Blocking popups is done via a browser setting and is a good idea. Also a good idea is to be careful where you go when browsing on the internet and never click on links or go to sites for which you can't be certain of their safety. By using good judgement in your behavior and choice of security software, danger will never be encountered.