search the earlier posts under this handle when my father was posting. He was mentioned as being paronoid. I still do what my late father used to do: When finished surfing the web to any unknown websites I do a full restore for a second HD that fits into a bay in my computer, booting from CD. Primary HD gets totally wiped. Takes less than 10 minutes. (similarly when I get email from unknown / untrusted persons a full restore gets done. Am very selective about giving out my real email address. Normally I give out the yahoo / hotmail one.) Almost needless to say but the second HD is normally not in the machine, only when backup / recovery is required. Maria
I use 1. a router with NAT 2. Zone Alarm free version 3. Avast free version 4. Spybot 5. Spyware Blaster 6. Spy Guard 7. Adaware 8. Hit Man Pro 2 9. Tune Up Utilities is a good program for keeping your registry in shape You find them by searching google.
All those programs are nice if you have the spare CPU capacity. But if you have the right secure behaviour pattern in place then it these are not mandatory. We run our machines right up to what they are able to handle - a 2.2 Ghz Pentium M running at 80% avg CPU load (solidly peaking at 100% when the going gets tough), and the temperature in the laptops gets pretty steep! And if there were reasonably priced laptops with bigger CPU's that can handle 100% constant load then we would get them. (And not many laptops can handle a constant 100% load for hours or days on end - done with backtesting. We have gone back to IBM ones since the Toshiba's kept overheating and shutting down. Nice enough for intermittend use but not for a constant load). We have router with NAT and then a hardware firewall with NAT and both have SIF. Not much gets trhough unless I haul a trojan in. No browsing during trading hours on the trading PC! And unloading every bit of unnecessary stuff that is not absolutely required. Maria