Anti Virus, Firewall and Spyware applications

With the greater availability of broadband, many people are connected to the internet for extended periods of time.  Unfortunately, unless your computer is protected it will quickly become infected.

Firewall

My personal favourite is ZoneAlarm there is a free version for non commercial use.  Check out  GRC.com's review of firewalls

The pro version, approx cost $40, is good for those that may not understand the  technical details of firewalls. Download ZoneAlarm Pro Here   or the free version can be downloaded here

Anti Virus

I have previously recommended AVG antivirus, however Grisoft no longer offer the free version of this package. However the current packages are reasonably priced, and I have found it to work relatively unobtrusively. AVG can be downloaded & purchased here

Anti SpyWare

The anti-spyware tool that I use most often is spybot Search and Destroy. It is freeware, and can be downloaded here  Please donate to the author, via his website, if your feel it has helped you.

Windows Messenger

Avoid running windows messenger on the following operating systems: Windows NT, 2000, and XP. These OS's hide  a hidden server cpmponent that is running by default. It receives and accepts, among other things, unsolicited network messages that cause pop-up dialog boxes to appear on the desktop. Internet Spammers have discovered this and are spraying pop-up Spam across the Internet. The Windows Messenger server should never have been running by default, and Microsoft has finally fixed that in Windows 2003, but users of previous Windows need to take responsibility for this themselves.