Outlook Express newsgroups won't show

i can log on with password to my email, but when I try to read newsgroups the list shows but when I try to view a particular group the popup shows my user name and saved password, but won't accept it.
I tried to re-enter with no luck.

There is another new quirk: to read email a popup askes for the user,& password, then goes to OLE and wants the password again, and if I go to newsgroups it asks again. All the hile I have saved the info. OLE used to only want te password when opening.

I on Bell South DSL and have Norton 2006 with email protection.
Also Windows defender.

I previously was able th download any newsgroup, I'm not sure of the time , but I recently updated Norton from 2005 to 2006.

I looked for any 'blocks' in Norton, defender and OLE with no luck.

I'm running:
Presario 6370US w/ 1 gb mem
120 gb ultra DMA disk
Win XP sp2 updated.