Sensible- most mysterious. I use cable broadband. Every few days it can't find a connection and I have to reset the cable box(disconnect power supply for 20 secs) then boot up the computer. The blank email is not on- how can you get one with no sender? Are you sure you haven;t got a 'Create Email' window open? Port scans are quite common, and mostly not malicious. I have even seen recently that a recommendation was made only to use firewalls with broadband connections- you are most unlikely to have a malicious scan on a phone line connection. If you removed spyware with Adaware and your computer failed to run, then you have other deeper computer related problems. Start progressively disabling/removing programs until you find things improving. Make sure you have enough memory. Run System File Checker with W98, Win XP has some superb recovery facilities. Try AVG anti-virus. Remove the Firewall