Madoke,

you're an adware victim.

Please have a look at http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm.

Hans-Georg

Madoke,

WinXP SP2 contained a few security "enhancements" which may be transparent, and
which may cause problems like you're seeing.

Under Tools - Internet Options, the Privacy and Security tabs have interesting
settings.  Under Privacy, the Pop-Up Blocker is a new feature.  Do you have
"Block pop-ups" checked?  If so, check Settings and make sure that "Play a
sound" and "Show Information Bar" is checked, so you'll know when a pop-up is
being blocked.  You can enable pop-ups on trusted websites, like for banking,
where a pop-up window is essential.

Also, under Security, you may wish to check the various settings.  Two good
websites for discussion about internet security in general, and proper security
settings are:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/main.htm
http://www.spywareinfo.com/

Here's a good article about the new Windows Firewall:
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0204.mspx#ECAA>

And about changes in Internet Explorer:
<http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/9/879a7b46-5ddb-4a82-b64d-64e791b3c9a
e/05_CIF_Browsing.DOC>

A lot of folks complain of the problems you're describing.  If you find
solutions in the above references, or in any others, would you please take the
time to post back here, either in this thread or another, and describe the
problem and solution?  These forums exist for everybody to help each other, and
your experiences could do that.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.