Can't go wrong with any of the above suggestions. Only thing I would say is buy a router for sure. They are a decent price and easy to install. Software firewall within XP are better than nothing but they can still be hacked, hardware firewalls avoid that problem. I use Avast and it's pretty solid, updates automatically and is easy to use. Kind of arcadish when it does run across a virus but no biggie.
Also, DUMP Internet explorer and Outlook, d/l and install FireFox and Thunderbird instead. FF is waaaaaay safer and with ThunderBird (email Proggie) you can filter messages BEFORE they are dowloaded off your email server.
I still have Adaware on my machine but rarely use it anymore becuase with the above setup, you don't really need it.
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