...curious if others had the same problem?

No.

...e.g., my wife's emails from her web
based server were transferred to O.E. with out us doing anything.

Both of your email addresses (e.g., ;
) probably point to the same mailbox with your ISP. OE
will download all new messages in your default Comcast mailbox. [I remember
that you're a Comcast subscriber.]

Was one or more of your email addresses configured and running in OE before
you installed SP3?

There were
issues with newsgroups we never encountered before also.

Such as...?

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed? What
anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)? What third-party firewall
(if any)? Were any of these applications running when you installed SP3?

WinXP SP3 - Read all prerequisites for a successful installation
http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron...tallation.aspx

Steps to take before you install WinXP SP3
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Grampy Pete wrote:
Until I installed sp3 to my xp home, outlook express ran fine. Since the
installation of sp3, O.E. is unstable, e.g., my wife's emails from her web
based server were transferred to O.E. with out us doing anything. There
were
issues with newsgroups we never encountered before also.
We no longer use O.E. but were curious if others had the same problem?
Thank you