thanks folks. I uninstalled AVG when it was obvious that the 2 were'nt happy together. Still got the "port 25 busy" message when I booted up.
So, I've simply changed the AVAST settings to not do the mail. I don't have a clue what's taking over port 25. There must be a system process that logs onto POP3 (ie, in XP, it tells me before I log on if I have new email messages).
I've had TCPview for a while. So I fired it up. Not sure if it's "process" or "local address" that I am looking for, but there's no port 25 listed at all. Local TCP's start at 1033 and "Process" listings start at 356 (ie, "tcpsvcs.exe:356").
Netstat -an (in the DOS screen) reports 25 as an active connection, but does not list the app using it. It just says, "0.0.0.0:25" to "0.0.0.0:0" Listening.
That's the extent of my technical know-how and my visionary perspective at this wee hour.
garbanzo