If you can’t find anything weird going on by installing a firewall, you could take drastic measures and format your hard drive(s) to make sure that if there was anything installed that was used for spying on you is gone.

Aside from the measures you can take to find and/or stop the spy software, I’d also confront your wife and ask her why she’s spying on you. If she wants to know what you chat about and with who, all she has to do is ask, right?

Last but not least, there’s the issue as to whether or not you should try to lock the computer so she can’t get into it anymore. Part of me says “no, it’ll only make her more suspicious” but on the other hand I also think “why not make it a little harder for her to spy?”

Okay, truly the last thing I want to say/ask: what kind of relationship are you in where your wife is spying on you?

Glad I could help 🙂

Try http://tucows.planet.nl/scapt95_default.html for screen capture programs. SnagIt is quite well-known, but it’s shareware and I don’t know the restrictions that brings if you don’t pay for it.

Personally I use Corel Capture which comes with CorelDraw (or the CorelDraw Graphics Suite), but I don’t think it’s sold seperately…

Semi-off topic, but I’ve had my sister read (at least) one of my chats. I work with my parents and she and my nephew came by the office one Monday. I had to bring my dad home, and while I was away she read my chat. I didn’t find out until a day or two later when my mom told me about it, but you can bet your axx that I was extremely mad at my sister. Since then I always lock the computer when I leave, even if it’s only for a few minutes, so nobody can read what I’ve been doing.

IMO, reading someone else’s chats is the same as reading someone’s emails or mail. If it’s a personal chat, such as the one my sister read, it’s even worse and could be compared to reading someone’s diary.

Never install more than one firewall or anti-virus application at the same time. They can interfere with eachother and lose effectiveness. If you turn on Windows XP’s own firewall, don’t install a second one unless you really know what you’re doing.

Why would you want to spy on someone else’s webcam or chat? Besides the question why, it’s also invasion of privacy and illegal, hypothetical or not.

if you’re blocked, they will still see you come online and go offline unless you’ve blocked them too.

On a personal note: a friend of mine tends to come online and go offline really fast several times in a row when she wants to make something clear to someone on her list by using her nickname (like “XXX answer your phone! It’s me who’s calling!”). It’s so annoying that I’ve told her not to do it anymore or I’ll block and delete her from my list. I’m not going to turn off the notifications just because one person acts like that.

You can run Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger at the same time, but not with the same account. If you are logged in with one of the two and then log in with the other using the same account, you’ll be logged out of the first. I often have both Windows Messenger and MSN Meesenger (6.1 beta) on at the same time with different account, and I’ve never had any problems.

I’m afraid I can’t give any more help other than suggesting writing to MSN Messenger’s support by using the form on this page
Hopefully they’ll be able to give a final answer on why your cams won’t work, as well as a solution to the problem.

Good luck 🙂