"Daniel Crichton" wrote in message
...
Kate wrote on Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:15:25 -0000:

Firstly, apologies for the multiple posting, but I wasn`t sure
which would be the most relevant group to use.

I have IE6 with Outlook Express, a USB ADSL router (using PPPoA)
and
am having on-going trouble connecting to newsgroups. Unfortunately,
advice that I have received following earlier posts hasn`t resolved
the problem and my ISP hasn`t been helpful at all. However, a
recent
virus scan showed that ntoskrnl.exe had "changed" and I wondered if
that might have something to do with it? As I am not sure exactly
what function this program has, apart from being essential during
boot-up, I thought it might be worth asking...

Thanks
Kate


Are you using AVG by any chance? And have you installed any MS
patches recently?

ntoskrnl.exe is the kernel image for Windows. It's a core part of
the operating system, not just a boot process. If it goes missing or
gets damaged Windows won't even run.

While it's possible that something may be attempting to infect it,
it's unlikely. It can be updated by MS patches, although the current
version on my XP Pro SP2 machine is dated 2nd March 2005, have you
recently installed Service Pack 2? Or at least since the last time
you ran a virus scan?

Dan


Yes, I use AVG Free, but without email scanning enabled, as I know it
can create many problems. I have had XP2 installed for ages (not long
after it first became available, I think) and I regularly update. I
last updated on 20 November, when I accepted IE7 (which I subsequently
uninstalled), and the one before that was 16 October. The problem
with connecting to NGs began around 16 November, when I cancelled a
message on a newsserver. My version of ntoskrnl.exe is also 2 March
2005, BTW. It was a long shot that it was the cause of the connection
difficulty, but at least I can probably eliminate it now, as
everything else works fine. However, if I do need to replace it, I
have SP2 on disk.

Many thanks for the reply
Kate