I some times experience this problem myself, even though I don't find it to be a problem, just an annoyance. First of all, go here to see a more or less detailed explanation of this WINSOCK error message (Notice that the "software" caused a "connection abort" because of some OTHER problem. The "software" is not normally the one to blame here).

As you can see in the explanation, there can be a multitude of possible causes for this error message. Though there might be a bug in either Win XP or mIRC 6.x that causes it to happen at more "regular" times, and my guess would be that it's a mIRC bug, since mIRC 5.9x didn't seem to behave like this.

I personally experience this problem when our DSL modem gets disconnected from our ISP, when our router reboots, or when I pull out the TP cable from my computer.

That being said, a good deal of these error messages are (as far as I have experienced) hardware related (disconnected modems, failing routers, bad TP cable), and this doesn't have to be hardware in my immediate surroundings.

Anyone else have additional useful info about this? I have noticed that some of the posts on this thread are pretty far fetched, wouldn't surprise me if someone blamed UFO's soon smirk

* [10053] UFO caused connection abort grin

Bloop