AntiVirus, Firewall, PopUp Blocker

[Hakan]

Windows XP fully updated
Linksys wireless G router
Kerio Personal Firewall
AVG anti-virus
ad aware
Spybot
and of course, regular HijackThis! screening.
Firefox/Opera

Computers are like cars, you have to put regular routine maintenance into them. Deep scan your computer with adaware and spybot once a week and do a virus scan every day.

[GoinAllTheWay]

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.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

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.

hardware firewalls don't avoid getting hacked... they are just harder to do and if someone wants to take the time to hack through a hardware firewall having a software firewall isn't going to stop them.

[shoestring]

http://www.clamwin.com/ is a free virus checker
and one called bitdefender8 free edition works well too.


And I use a squared too, along with most of the stuff mentioned above http://www.emsisoft.com for malware.