I have some questions about some things in my WinXP..

How you disable or drop findfast differs depending on the operating system. I myself get rid of it as it has caused some real problems in the past.

Here are some links on pros and cons of findfast as well as how to handle it.

www.geek.com/tipstrix/misc/findfast.htm

support.microsoft.com/?kbid=199787

www.jsiinc.com/SUBA/tip0400/rh0417.htm

support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;229650

is-it-true.org/nt/utips/utips27.shtml

But what about my other problems?

I was talking to another person on this board about a similar problem. First of all I'm not familar with what the about:home thing is, you may have to download a fix of the net. Do a google on that.. But you might also want to take a look in the run key of your reg and see if that is where it is getting ran from. Also take a look in your internet settings within the reg. I had a similar thing once and I had to clean out the IE settings.

this may help it may not. Maybe someone else who knows more might be able to help more but I would start there.

Grey

I was talking to another person on this board about a similar problem. First of all I'm not familar with what the about:home thing is, you may have to download a fix of the net. Do a google on that.. But you might also want to take a look in the run key of your reg and see if that is where it is getting ran from. Also take a look in your internet settings within the reg. I had a similar thing once and I had to clean out the IE settings.

this may help it may not. Maybe someone else who knows more might be able to help more but I would start there.

Grey

No, I have cleaned out the IE thing several times, but thats not the problem. Every time it does that, its due to a different file than the last. Its aanother .dll file, but with a different name. Some people on my ZA list seem to try to send "packets" to my IP address, and I believe whats in those "packets" is a .dll file that is made so it buries itself into my Windows System32 folder making it hard to trace. But fortunately I know how to fix the problem. Unfortunately it takes 15 minutes worth of computer time to completely resolve that issue....temporarily.
I have infact done searches on the file that infect my system, but find nothing about them..
That's why I need some answers on how to prevent this kind of crap from happening to my computer.

Also, within 4 days of installation of my ZA, I have had over 700 "intrusions" blocked on my computer. Is this normal for a DSL user, or a bit insane?

Okay, allow me to cut through the fear uncertainty and doubt here.

First and foremost.. there is no packet that can place a DLL on your system. As simple as that.

Secondly, there have not been 700 blocked intrusions no matter what ZA tells you. There is lots of junk floating round the net.. harmless portscans.. old (and new) worms trying to scan address ranges, misrouted packets etc.. these have just been blocked.. I can safely say that about maybe 1% of these is an attack on your system.. not by a hacker.. but by worms etc.. so you have nothing to fear.

Next, ZA loads as a service.. that means it loads itself even before you log on.. and definetely before your net connection..

whats happening about this DLL is that you've got a spyware program running on your system that is doing this everytime at startup.. it has nothing to do with the internet etc.. its a program that executes everytime your system starts.. now you can download Spybot - Search and Destroy.. or Adaware.. and clean it up..

alternatively head over to sysinternals.com, they have a small freeware utility called Autostart or something similar that will show you everything that loads at startup.. once you get that and have its output.. drop a line here and I'll help you understand it.

And no, I dont trust MSconfig..

Ok, I downloaded it ("Autoruns") and well..yeah, what now? I looked at the directory here..but nothing looks bad, yet, I dont know what is bad..