I am having an odd problem. My incoming bandwith is rather low and lately my machine keeps dropping my internet connection. It says it is still connected however, it will not connect to the net. If it is in the middle of any process it freezes in the middle of that process. Any ideas to cause this?

Sounds like spyware hogging your bandwidth, download Ad-aware, install it, update it, then run an in-depth scan of your registry and drives, removing everything it finds.

I own ad aware and run it regularly. It didn't come up with much. Any other ideas?

Try Spybot, it often picks up on things Ad-aware misses. If that fails to sort you out, download HijackThis, update it first, then run a scan. Find the logfile of the scan and copy n paste it into a new post in here, someone will read throught it and point out the problems. HijackThis picks up on a LOT of things that the other two don't.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7 Scan saved at 4:23:50 AM, on 11/27/2003 Platform: Windows XP (WinNT 5.01.2600) MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 (6.00.2600.0000) Running processes: C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe C:\Program Files\Executive Software\Diskeeper\DkService.exe C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds\wbload.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\atiptaxx.exe C:\Program Files\CursorXP\CursorXP.exe C:\Program Files\EarthLink\TaskPanl.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\RUNDLL32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\RUNDLL32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\Program Files\EarthLink\FastLane\IPClient.exe C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe C:\Documents and Settings\Ryan\Local Settings\Temp\Temporary Directory 2 for hijackthis.zip\HijackThis.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://g.msn.com/0SEENUS/SAOS01 R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.earthlink.net/partner/more/msie/button/search.html R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.mail.yahoo.com/ R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://start.earthlink.net R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://www.earthlink.net/partner/more/msie/button/search.html R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = http://www.earthlink.net/partner/more/msie/button/search.html O1 - Hosts: 255.255.255.255 www.casinoxo.com O2 - BHO: EarthLink Popup Blocker - {4B5F2E08-6F39-479a-B547-B2026E4C7EDF} - C:\Program Files\EarthLink\PnEL.dll O3 - Toolbar: Pop-Up Blocker - {D7F30B62-8269-41AF-9539-B2697FA7D77E} - C:\Program Files\EarthLink\PnEL.dll O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AtiPTA] atiptaxx.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Tweak UI] RUNDLL32.exe TWEAKUI.CPL,TweakMeUp O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [CursorXP] C:\Program Files\CursorXP\CursorXP.exe O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [E6TaskPanel] "C:\Program Files\EarthLink\TaskPanl.exe" -winstart O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000 O9 - Extra button: AIM (HKLM) O16 - DPF: {0E5F0222-96B9-11D3-8997-00104BD12D94} (PCPitstop Utility) - http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/PCPitStop.CAB O16 - DPF: {54B52E52-8000-4413-BD67-FC7FE24B59F2} (EARTPatchX Class) - http://simcity.ea.com/patch/EARTPX.cab O16 - DPF: {9F1C11AA-197B-4942-BA54-47A8489BB47F} (Update Class) - http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/CAB/x86/unicode/iuctl.CAB?37845.9928703704 O16 - DPF: {BF985246-09BF-11D2-BE62-006097DF57F6} (SimCityX Control) - http://simcity.ea.com/play/classic/SimCityX.cab O16 - DPF: {C36661D7-3590-45B1-80B5-520839E94DAD} (MaxisSimCity4PatcherX Control) - http://simcity.ea.com/patch/MaxisSimCity4PatcherX.cab O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{8BC53F4A-7EC9-47CC-B12C-5E6C850F8CDC}: NameServer = 207.69.188.187 207.69.188.186

No, lol, I meant you should post it as a new post, make the subject "Spyware hogging bandwidth" or something, re-post the log, and someone will be along to help you eventually.

lol...duh... Thanks for the help. :)