Mac, Culpeper,
I will IM you both regarding this thread before we get slapped on the wrist by a moderator, but I do want to comment.
As for Sygate and Avast, I use them together on my XP and have not had any problems at all.
Sygate, Windows98 and Avast did not seem to get along.
I was unable to obtain a proper shutdown. Sygate was the culprit here and I had to switch over to Zone Alarm.
ZA and Avast like each other fine!
techie