Three days back when I attempted to log on to eBay I could not do so. The browser (Firefox) would sit and grind away but nothing happened until I got a time out screen I then tried the same thing using Internet Explorer, Netscape and Mozilla only to get the same results. I suspected that I had a virus or malware of some sort but after running two different Anti-virus scans nothing turned up. Scanned with AdAware and Spybot S&D. I then tried Trendmicros housecall online scan. All of these scans have turned up nothing. One other problem, I use Thunderbird as my email client. On the same day all of the above took place TBird stopped automatically checking for and downloading email. I can get my email by manually asking for it. Also, I cannot expand an email in another window. I loaded Outlook Express and it has no problem getting email automatically. Not sure all of this is related but they all started at about the same time. I attempted to log onto the Firefox and Thunderbird web sites for their help but as with eBay I was unable to do so. Other than those problems I can browse without any other problems. I had not loaded any new software prior to all of this happening. Any ideas anyone?

richard, simply a SWAG, sounds like a nasty at work to me. You've checked SOME, BUT NOT ALL the possible culprits. Be aware that a virus and a trojan are similar, but not the same. Many times, a virus scanner can detect one it can't clean , other times, it gets missed entirely. There’s an online trojan scanner @: http://www.trojanscan.com/trojanscan If it turns out that you have one and need to clean, A² can do the job and you can get it free @: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4281.html among other places. If it turns out that you need to use it, be sure to update prior to running. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Thanks Ed, I will give that online scan a try. I was not aware of A² but I will download it just in case. richard