A good antivirus package like Nortons helps. A firewall is good too. A lot of people like Zonealarm. I don't. I use Sygate. http://www.sygate.com/ They have a free firewall I find works very effectively and runs unobtrusively. One thing I do above all. Turn of the windows messenger. That puppy keeps a port open and it's so easy to hack into it. You can get a nice little freeware program that does this at http://grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm Why messenger? It's a pipeline for spyware, which may be the most insidious new hacking tool around. As far as service packs, well, I downlaod a few of the security updates, but the service packs are 100s of megs each. Come on, I'm on dial-up, what was microsoft thinking with downloads that big? I don't even download MP3s, let alone something that huge. Just because a program like anti spyware of a firewall is free doesn't mean it's not good. As far as firewalls, personal users don't have the advanced needs that business users with multiple computers face, so a freeware firewall, from a good company, suffices quite well. As far as spyware, well, eliminate windows messenger and you cut that down considerably. As for the rest of it, I'm not sure any program, freeware of not is able to keep up with it all that well.

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