Sharon, go into control panel and look for firewall. There are a couple of radio buttons, one which says on and one which says off. Select the off button to disable the Service Pack two firewall. Can't understand why they're going on about the registry. I've got Mcafee personal firewall and have just turned off the XP one. Hope this is of some use. Cheers, Sandra. ** To leave the list, send a message to:- ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq