Blank e-mails?????

[Sensible]

I've just noticed a pattern! I receive a blank e-mail, no sender or subject, I delete it it and then when I restart my computer, I cant log on to my cable broadband provider. In spite of checking out all of the network connections, and with the aid of their technical helpline, nothing will coak the computer to reconnect except a reformat of the hard drive and a fresh installation. I have tried re-installing windows over the old installation but that brings no joy. A scan of all files by McAfee reveals no apparent viruses on the computer. This has happened three times now and I'm running McAfee firewall which brings me to another oddity, I get an attempted port scan alert about every 10 minutes. and looking at the log, there are three or four attempts each time. I first had to reformat the hard drive when I found that when I was connected to the net, my hard drive was rattling away most of the time and the machine was running really slow. I found a lot of spyware on the computer with the aid of "adware" but found that when they were removed, the computer failed to run.

Until recently, I was running McAfee but without the firewall.

I am but a simple man and have no secrets on my computer so I just don't understand the constant port scan attacks or the blank e-mails!

[What_does_this_button_do?]

I run Norton Firewall and you wouldn't believe how many emails send your personal information (such as email address) onto a website. In this case I think you've unknowingly sucked down something nasty.

I would guess you've just been stung.

B

[Notso Fantastic]

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

[sprocket]

Sensible

Did you back up your registry before removing the spyware?

Some of those spyware intrusions are attached to the computer registry and can cause problems when removed.