Nancy,

Right click on the little “man” icon in the tray and select Preferences. On the left panel, go to SignOn/Off.

You will find the “Start with windows” box under the heading Sign ON…Lines 2 and 3.

As for the Firewall, YES…it will always be ON, but you can select the “level” of security. It is usually set on the top “button”, but you can try the middle button which affects outgoing stuff.

Have you had any other “abnormalities” with your system? The problem you are having is not characteristic of AIM.

Are you using a third party firewall? In other words, not the one that comes with say…Windows XP.