Kathy and RG wrote:
>My computer turns on every night at midnight,>>


Assuming you both have XP, first go into Control Panel/Task Scheduler and 
see if there's anything in there that's scheduled to run at certain times.

Clearly you have something, legitimate or otherwise, scheduled to run scans 
or updates at certain regular times. In Kathy's case, this can be very 
annoying if it has to gain internet access when you're in the middle of 
something. This will probably be something, probably your a-v, running an 
update.

The most likely sources are:
Windows updates. (Control Panel/System/Windows updates)
Anti-virus updates or scans.
Antispyware scans.

Check all your program settings for these applications, especially the 
"update" and "scan" settings, and either set them to manual, or to a more 
suitable time. Personally, I don't like anything running automatically, and 
do all my updates manually. But some people like to "Set and forget", which 
I guess is safer if you are running in an unsafe environment (ie visiting 
dubious websites, or opening unknown email attachments, or visiting 
chatrooms etc).

The final, more sinister, possibility is that trojans are attempting to 
"phone home" with info they are dragging out of your computer. Run scans 
with Spybot, AdAware, or whatever anti-spyware progs you may have.

If you like to purchase ZoneAlarm Pro firewall and antispyware suite, it 
will tell you which programs are accessing the internet at any time.

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html 

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
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