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Everyone knows that the Web can be a very dangerous place. Some of us have even had the misfortune to find out the hard way, while others simply hope for the best. Each of the following items are applications I use daily and can therefore vouch for their effectiveness. Since most of them are free, you'll no longer have an excuse for becoming yet another statistic.
 Silly name, excellent software! This is proactive security software which, unlike run-of-the-mill anti-virus products, doesn't wait until infections are identified elsewhere before releasing an update days or weeks later. It safely stops suspicious programs before they get a chance to do any damage to your system. While it's doing that, it also will report the program to a community database, so any potentially infectious process can be quickly identified and, if need be, stopped on other user's machines as well.
Three levels of user interaction ranging from Beginner to Expert are available, which make PrevX simple to use, according to your computer skills. The easy level should be quite sufficient in most cases. Please check out their their Blog by clicking here, or learn more about PrevX by clicking on the logo above.
 MailWasher Pro works directly with your e-mail server, exactly like your e-mail program does. But there is one important difference: you can tell MailWasher Pro to delete a message at the server, without downloading it - or you can bounce an e-mail back to the sender so that it looks as though your address is not valid. MailWasher Pro can be thought of as a "first line of defence" which can weed out junk, large wasteful attachments, and potentially harmful viruses.
If you check your accounts with MailWasher Pro first, you can delete or bounce the e-mail you do not want. Then, when you use your e-mail program, it downloads only the remaining emails - those that you want to read.
 Complete Inbox protection. Benign neutralizes harmful aspects of your e-mail such as viruses, scripts and web bugs, so e-mail you receive is safe. In my experience, this remains one of the most under-rated, yet powerful and easy-to-use, anti-virus tools currently available.
With its ability to quickly and comprehensively scan your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components, Ad-aware will provide the user with the confidence to surf the Internet knowing that their privacy will remain intact.
Like Ad-Aware, above, Spybot S&D is a free utility which scans your drives for the presence of Spyware, Scumware and Malware, etc. It works in a slightly different way and will happily coexist with Ad-aware - each product often finding 'nasties' the other one hasn't.
Keep spyware from installing in the first place! Download the latest SpywareBlaster version and you'll be secured by the most powerful anti-spyware protection solution anywhere.
WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. With Scotty the Windows watchdog on patrol you'll be kept informed about what's going on inside your computer. WinPatrol puts you back in control, so you'll know which programs are (and should be) running.
Since I now use a hardware firewall, I can't truthfully claim to be currently using ZoneAlam, which is software-based. However, I have used it extensively in previous system configurations and can thoroughly recommend it. If you don't know what a firewall is, you shouldn't on the web - it's as simple as that. Anyone without one is simply a sitting duck these days. Win XP already has a firewall built in, although that will only attempt to prevent intrusion, rather than stop what you've already invited onto your machine from sending nasty stuff (like spam and viruses), out again. Zonealarm checks both incoming and outgoing traffic, thereby preventing your system from being used e.g. as a spam relay a.k.a 'Zombie'. Just do it, please!
I use the (paid-up) Pro version 7 of AVG, but if you don't already have a bang-up-to-date virus scanner in place on your system, I'd be amazed if you're still able to read this article! AVG are very nice people, so they've also provided a free version which you can obtain by clicking on the above link. Note that you should never have two virus checkers installed at the same time if you want a quiet life. Please also remember that your anti-virus solution won't recognise a virus that was written since you last updated - so keep it current. And promise me you'll never open an email attachment you weren't expecting?
In closing, be advised that you should never, ever assume that your presence on the web is too insignificant to warrant the need for any of this stuff. There's a swarm of utra-high-speed scanners out there just listening for complacent people. If you find that hard to believe, just install ZoneAlarm and then check your logs to find out how many times in an hour attempts are made to probe your system! And if your web connection now seems to work far more slowly than it used to, then it may already be too late for you. Let's hope not, eh?
Take care,
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