Originally posted by TakenForaRide

But I did get a message that icq application exe was coming from another computer. I checked the ip and it is someone I know.
When you got that message were you recieving a file from your friend over icq? As mentioned in this thread before when recieving a file through applications like icq you establish a peer to peer connection with the person sending a file. What this means is that unlike when you send messages which go through the icq server your computer connects directly with the other person's. Could this have possibly triggered the warning on your firewall? As for the computer crashes/Explorer lock out etc could it be simply lack of memory on your own computer? Do they just refuse to work or are there any error messages first?

Protecting your computer from attacks.....first got a good virus scanner like mcafee or norton and scan your computer for any trojan programs or such like virii then install a firewall, I use ZA myself on a very low end pc without 2 many probs....try freeing up some memory, uninstall uneeded progs or delete the junk that piles up on everyones HD's after a while. Then try it or tiny again. And don't forget the most important rule of computer security don't run anything unless you know what it is and who its from...and even then check it with an antivirus program and if possible check it with another - oh and always make system back-ups before installing anything so that if something screwy does happen you can return your computer to the point before you installed it.

May seem a bit off overkill but a paranoid surfer is a safe surfer

hope this helped
val`