You might want to pick up a piece of freeware called Spywareblaster from:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/index.html It works with Firefox as well as IE. It helps block spyware and adware from finding it's way onto your computer.
One comment it does occasionally find some things that they rate as dangerous which probably aren't. There is part of Real Rhapsody that they rate as dangerous. I think it's because it reports what you're playing and the digital rights to one of the firms that are looking for copyright violations. I don't know that's for sure, but it's my best guess. If you have this and spybot you'll find that Spybot defers to Spywareblaster for ActiveX protection.
If you don't have Spybot and AdAware both of which are also free you should get them as well. They all work slightly differently and form an overlapping protective ring.
i have a new compaq amd 64 notebook, downloaded sp 1 + 2, but encountered el problema:
pop up, grey boxes with "!timed out" error messages, and web site not available, etc.
so, i installed foxfire + the same thing happens.
last night, while surfing on the net, everything just froze up, crash.
any suggestions? my isp said to take zone alarm + the ad blockers off, which i did.
thanks.