Hi Karl
I agree that not all services should be on auto. One of the services was 'Messenger', which is NOT the IE Messenger (IM). I spilled coke over my notes last night, I can't read the rest of them! Sorry! If you use netstat and tasklist you can verify whether or not the ports are opening. If they are, the problem is likely a service, I think. And no, many programs do NOT check/verify if needed services are valid. In trying to fix my pc, I thought I saw a area that the LW developers could be posted to? If so, might be time to ask the pros? I wish you could send me a status of your services, I'm curious and want to nail this down, it might help alot of other connect problems.