Apologies Keef
I had thought that the thread was beginning to fade of its own accord so hadn't looked at it for a couple of days; no ingratitude or churlishness on my part - promise.
I took the advice and that of the free software sticky and downloaded Zonealarm on Friday evening and did a scan with it, which came up clean. However, after that, every single action seemed to take ages to achieve and was accompanied by "security warning!!" with an unintelligible "explanation" in it. Following a link seemed to take forever and eventually I decided I didn't want this to be the future and uninstalled it and it's all working normally again.
Is that what you meant by "it can be a bit of a pain at first" and how long can it go on for?
I/we have an HP Pavilion slimline (mini tower) amd the modem is a Speedtouch 330 supplied by Tiscali. I have read that the catch with this modem is that the system "sees" it as a dial-up connection, but as I shut it down every night after a disc cleanup I don't see this as a major handicap. Owt else? all tips gratefully received.
BTW were you up late preparing your Easter sermon and opted for a spot of pruning after??
TIA The Ancient Mariner