Hi Bill, perhaps your brother has a Linksys wireless usb adapter installed? Check the link below but scroll down aways

Here is a link that might be useful: Linksys forum cure

Thanks so much owbist. I called and told my brother to look at this forum for the response you made and check out the link. He said that his ISP provided the Linksys equipment (probably router or modem). He did not remember installing any of it on his computer so they probably set it up. He will most likely call them in the morning.

I really do appreciate it and hopefully that will get us on the path to clear up the problems. I am amazed at the knowledge of people like you.
Bill P.

We'll all keep our fingers crossed Bill, let us know if this is the cure please so any lurkers may also benefit.

Thanks again owbist, will do if any info is passed on to me. I emailed this morning to give my brother the link to follow to see what he can about it. He may need to contact his ISP to try to get a service tech out there to replace and / or reinstall those drivers.
Bill P.

Obist, the following is an email that I received from my brother awhile ago. Unfortunately, it probably will not help any lurkers or anyone else much, but at least it seems to have eliminated the error message popping up on his computer.
I do certainly appreciate your sharing your knowledge and expertiese which gave us a path to follow to isolate and solve the problem. Prior to that, we had no idea.
========
I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH THE TECH SUPPORT AT EMBARK FOR ABOUT 1 1/2 HOURS. WE DID A LOT OF THINGS & THAT ERROR MSG IS NOW GONE. I HEAR THE SOUND IN THE BACKGROUND LIKE IT IS GOING TO SHOW THE MSG BUT DOES NOT. HE THINKS THE PROBLEM IS IN A CARD IN MY CPU THAT HANDLES INTERNET FUNCTIONS THAT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. I THINK IT IS A PLUG IN CARD THAT I MAY HAVE TO REPLACE. ONLY TIME WILL TELL. I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR HELP.
D

LOL, you have to love the tech support folks. I do understand though, 3 instructions and onwards and we are all lost. At least his annoyance is taken care of. Nothing else matters.

Have a great day.

I wrote in Java on my search,,in other words,,start, then search,,I typed in the word Java,,187 files came up for it, this sounds crazy, yet some of the "dll" say I can damage my computer if I mess with it,,this sounds totally abnormal to me and can account for the slow computer I have,,,Daisey

Daisey I am unsure what you hoped to gain by searching for Java files. Did someone recommend this and if so did they say why you should search?

Yes indeed, if you mess with .dll files you can mess up the computer quite sudden.

Why does 187 Java files seem abnormal and why do you suppose those are what might be slowing your computer?

Just to give you comfort I searched my confuser and found 4,377 files with the word 'java' in. However most of those are in one shopping cart program not installed. But that leaves me with about 390 files on my computer, far more than yours but I am not concerned in the least.

This is off-topic, but my heart caught in my throat when I saw this post. The original poster passed away in April. I had one of those, 'it was all just a mistake' moments.

RIP gonefishin

thank you owbist , for answering,,well, bear with me,,I was advised to empty unecessary programs from my computer,,it might run faster,,in other words, I am sure I have a lot of junk, but am super afraid to do anything for fear, I will damage beyond repair my comp. I know very little about the inards of this machine, nor the terminolgy,,so I thought let me see what is in my folders and files I clicked Java,,and all these files came up,,I clicked msn, which I dont use,,again a whole load of them I thought when I install anything, I might have a few with the name, had no idea this much would be installed also,,I just want to clean up the junk , but don't know how...thanx again, Daisey

Daisey just removing programs will not make your computer run faster unless the hard drive is over filled. To see how much free space is on your hard drive click Start then click My computer. A window will appear and you will see your hard drive listed with the total size and the amount of free space. For the computer to run efficiently you need 25% or more free space. This allows you 'swap file' to operate at it's peak.

A few questions.
What anti virus are you using?
What anti spyware programs are you using and do you keep them up to date and run them every couple of weeks?
What firewall are you using?
What operating system are you using?
How much memory does the computer have?

To check how much memory click Start, click Control Panel, click System and right near the bottom of the new window you will see how much RAM is installed.

To start improving things you could download and install Ccleaner which is linked below. Run without changing any settings. This will remove all the bits and pieces left behind over time and give you more hard drive space. Then you should do a defrag.

To defrag the computer click Start, click All programs, slide up and click Accessories, slide over and down to click System Tools then click Disk defragmenter. Once there click to start the defrag, you can walk away for perhaps an hour now whie it does a clean up and tidies all the files.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ccleaner - slim version with no Yahoo toolbar

hint if you have a screen saver set to come on your pc you should turn it off to do the defrag many screensavers will cause the defrag to halt and not complete.
Right click the desktop, properties, go to screensaver tab and select none and apply.
If you have power saving turned on you might want to turn that off also while doing a defrag.

Another question when was the last time the side was taken off the computer case and the inside of the computer was cleaned? If not recently then that is a very good place to start. Dust build up and crud build up inside the pc can virtually kill it, causes heat build up and fans can stop working. UN plug it first! Blow out with canned air.

To delete any old programs you do not use you simply have to go to start, control panel, add remove programs, select the program in the list and hit remove, no need to go through it's files etc.

RIP gonefishin

thanx again owbist,,I was gone for a few days,,so I will go thru the list you gave me,,be back later, I have AOL, & they supply a McAfee with it,,I'm supposed to have firewall, spyware, etc. it scans and updates,,so Im hoping it does the job. system is WindowsXP memory 383mb on the bottom it says 996mhz 384mb of ram I am going to run the cleaner now, again , thanx so much,,, I sometimes have a problem with the terminology,,but you were easy to understand,,Daisey,,,Ill get back to you,

to owbist,,,I did the cleaner,,it went so fast I thought I missed it,,tonight I will do the defrag, when I'm ready to sign off, anything else I can do..thanx,,,Daisey