@1swift:
zonealarm? i downloaded it from somewhere like downloads.com for free…i think they want you to pay for it after a while but you can crack if u look hard enough 
and just to be clear its not an antivirus program its just a firewall...im not exactly sure how neccessary it is but i use it...and its annoying when u first get it because u have to OK everything that wants to use the internet the first time around
i'm pretty sure their free version is free forever. But of coarse, companies always try to push their versions they get money for. I actually liked that they asked you to ok a program before it granted you access to it. That way I knew what was going on.
If some people are having pop up problems, and others are not, that makes me think it is the user's computer, and not the website.
As for 290, ya, I'm anxios too, but why wouldn't they sub it? They're probably just being dragged around to the relatives by their parents this past week. or someone got sick. there's a lot of that going on right now.