[Turbopilot]

Basic computer security: don't click on pop-ups or ads for anything. Better yet, use Google toolbar or other pop-up and ad blocker, or go to Firefox or another browser.

My current Internet security package:
Bazooka Scanner (free)
Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE (free)
Microsoft Antispyware Beta (free)
Spybot Search and Destroy (free)
Spyware Blaster (free)
Norton Internet Security ($50/year, but can probably be nearly matched with free antivirus and the Windows firewall)
Mozilla Firefox w/Adblock and other extensions - set to ask before accepting cookies (free)
Hardware firewall and WPA-encrypted, secured Wi-Fi network ($40)
Having the common sense not to visit websites such as www.pr0n-n-w4r3z.ru :-p

Set everything to update and execute overnight once a week, but I almost never find anything that's gotten through in the first place. As an added benefit, along with some other optimization stuff, my computer boots and runs applications about twice as fast as it did when it was brand new.

[goodnesswins]

...."and WPA-encrypted, secured Wi-Fi network ($40)"

What is THAT?

[Petronski]

www.pr0n-n-w4r3z.ru



Great sight!

[bcsco]

I'm also running Ad-Aware, Spybot and Firefox with Adblock. I also run ZoneAlarm firewall (free edition) which automatically informs you when updates are available. My anti-virus software is AVG Free Edition v.7.0. I highly recommend AVG as an anti-virus application. It too automatically updates itself on almost a daily basis (I'm running a DSL connection). Over a year ago I had a conversation with a Dell representative on a hardware problem I was having. He confided that they too were using AVG on their office PC's. Now, this wasn't a Dell employee but one of those Tech Service people you get when you call a Dell Tech Support hotline, but I found that interesting, nevertheless.

Regardless of a package one has, it's always advisable to update the codecs whenever possible for all the software one runs.

[onehipdad]

I use all of these as well, and have been relying on Firefox as my primary browser for almost two years on my work PC, laptop and home PC with no problems whatsoever. However, I have to use IE for our web-based company data collection/display program, and recently I acquired a daily popup of WinFixer and Virtumonde.exe. I checked the Symantec website and found that Virtumonde frequently latches onto Windows updates and its appearance coincided with a recent update. I was able to get rid of it with MS antispyware, but WinFixer has been a tougher nut to crack, still appearing occasionally but not daily as it did before. Any suggestions? It's only on my work PC which is on the company network.

[A knight without armor]

Good grief! Why don't we just tell the people who make spyware to stop it and make something that people actually desire. Something that enhances computer use. Seems like they'd make money from that, too. If not even more.

[antiRepublicrat]

Six pieces of software running just to protect you from deficiencies of the OS. It's really sad if you think about it.

There's an ad: "Get Mac or Linux so you don't have to install, learn and run so many programs that you really don't want anyway."

[steve-b]

Having the common sense not to visit websites such as www.pr0n-n-w4r3z.ru

Hey! Are you dissing my home page? ;-)