Best form of "network" security for your home: a hardware firewall (usually part of a router).
Next, enable the Vista firewall. Do not install any other "internet security suite". This includes McAfee, Norton or anything else. Software firewalls beyond the built in one are basically useless.
Next, get yourself a decent, non invasive virus scanner. Avoid McAfee and Norton like the plague. Both of those go overboard and end up consuming far more resources then you need. AVG is good. Also heard good things about Avast.
Finally, a decent spy ware scanner is required. I use a combination of Ad-Aware and Windows Defender. Both are light weight, don't need to be running constantly and do a good job protecting me.
Basically, avoid anything that is "Real time" protection or is part of a "suite". Those products will ultimately cause you more problems the they will prevent.
Although, if you can get your hands on it, the corporate version of Symantec is relatively decent if you're paranoid. Just please avoid using Norton.
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