Originally Posted by Rik Bean

You should have received some documentation with the router which gave you the default name and password. The fact that you were asked for it means that you had reached the log-in page for the router, so the number is the right one. Do you know the make and model of the router? You might try admin and password for the user/password combo, see if that works.

Until you get into the router, we don't know what firewall protection you've got in place there, so it's difficult to say what the next step will be. There are two sets of IP addresses in play here, the external one by which you connect to the 'net, and you local one(s) by which you connect to the router and any other computers. The majority, if not all, routers will keep the two separate by using a NAT firewall, it translates a request from your computer's IP into the one used to connect to the 'net - the only exposed IP is the router's, and you can't do much in trying to hack a router.

What sort of things get sent to you? Can you remind me what anti-virus program you are running and whether you are running a software firewall. Have you done a full system virus scan? Do you run adware/malware software? If not, get some and do a scan for that too. One vulnerability can come from trojans, so these scans, and AV protection are vital. Ad-aware and SpyBot are two popular malware apps, personally I use Webroot's SpySweeper, it costs more but it works better for me.

Once we know your machine is clean, and have established you have a working NAT firewall, my guess is that any remaining issues will come from Java and the Messenger service. The latter can be disabled safely (it's nothing to do with Windows Messenger). Start services - hit Start, Run, then type %SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc /s and hit return. Look for the Messenger service, double-click on it and change the startup type to disabled.

Let me know how you get on.