Is my ISP "watching" me?

[Feather Figure]

In my house, to cut down on costs we have recently switched from broadband cable (Earthlink) to DSL (SBC/AT&T Yahoo). Ever since then I've noticed that after cruising around for awhile, on this site and others, I'll be able to open/view images and such just fine, then all of a sudden I won't be able to. My right click disables at the same time as well. I can't figure out why this is happening. I have run virus and spyware scans but have not found anything. Is it my ISP that is doing this? Are they watching me? Or restricting my activities on the Internet? Watching what I upload or download, or what sites I visit? I would hate to believe that is the case, but in this day and age ones privacy is afforded next to nill as far as respect is concerned. This is distressing, to say the least.

I also note that when this happens I cannot log out of this site. I click on the Log Out button but nothing happens. I have to exit my browser.

I have heard of programs that provide anonymity when surfing the net, but question the reliability of them.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

The chances of this being your ISP are very, very small. This sounds like a browser problem (Maybe a memory problem). What browser do you use? Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Konqueror, etc?

 

[Feather Figure]

I use IE7 on my home desktop, which is the one I visit TT on. It has 1GB of RAM. I have never had this problem until we switched to DSL (the cheapest package available). I am now wondering if this may be a bandwidth issue with the ISP, since we have the cheap package.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Why would that disable right click is what I wonder. Try this for me: Download and install the Firefox browser, http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ and see if it occurs with that as well. If it does, 'tis an OS or ISP issue. If not, something is up with IE.

 

[tkpatience]

This freezing problem could be caused by any number of reasons. Out of curiosity, I was just wondering if your entire computer freezes up for a second or if it is just the right click function and a lack of being able to open things?

Also do you have all the updates for your version of Windows?

Out of experience SBC/AT&T Yahoo isn't a very reliable ISP, but I agree with HDS' assessment about the provider being one of the last resorts.

The symptoms you describe would likely suggest something was wrong with the computer or program rather than just something as simple as the ISP. Also keep in mind that the time in which a problem occurs can be incidental when one of these problems occur. The only reason I mention this is because if your memory or hard drive decide to die the moment you switch ISP, then it will appear that ISP is to blame.

Finally, ISPs watch everyone logging their every move through IP address. Though I don't believe they actually do anything with the data unless they get subpoenaed or something.

 

[Feather Figure]

It was just the right click and not being able to open images after awhile. I downloaded some updates, but I don't know if that was a fix or not. Haven't had the problem again, but then I also haven't stayed logged-in that long lately.