Tools For Safe Surfing

Connecting to the Internet has become like running the gauntlet. You need to protect yourself a best you can while connected and clean your wounds once you have finished. All the programmes mentioned below need to be updated regularly, less so the firewalls.

The cleaners are Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) and Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free). They complement each other well and together I don't think they leave much if anything behind.

The spy-ware guard is SpyWareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html). Its job is to stop the dodgy stuff loading itself in the first place. The Spybot-S&D program detects Spywareblaster and recommends its use.

AntiVir Personal Edition (http://www.free-av.com/) is a free antivirus program from HBEDV. It is better than Grisoft's AVG Free Edition (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) because it will treat the virus on discovery. The downside is that its updates are big and slow so Grisoft may well have the upper hand on a dial-up system.

I suggest one of two often recommended firewalls: Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp) and SPF (http://smb.sygate.com/download_buy.htm). I use SPF but I have installed Zone Alarm on other machines as well since it was suggested to be for the less technical user.