Download Grisoft AVG – it's free!
Protect yourself from script kiddies (the chavs or vermin of the Internet) trying to connect to your machine. Download the free version of ZoneAlarm - click on the link marked Download FREE ZoneAlarmŽ (Firewall Protection).
You should scan your computer regularly for spyware. Be careful though – there lots of spyware-installing programs which have names very similar to spyware-removers! Lavasoft AdAware is a good product, but remember to update it each time you scan.
Spyware, and Adware, can be bad as they upload details of what you are doing or looking at. Unfortunately there is plenty of commercial software which contains spyware of one sort or another – many media players like to upload details of what you are watching to central servers, and the “What's Related” functionality in Netscape and Internet Explorer (provided by Alexa) is seen as spyware by many as your browser tells Alexa about the sites you are visiting.
You
can also help to stop yourself downloading some spyware, especially
the tracking “WebBugs”, if you
install WebWasher Classic.
This can also be configured to block adverts – very useful if
you are on a low-bandwidth connection and the sites you visit like to
load huge banner adverts. Once installed, tick the boxes shown here.
It will only auto-configure Internet Explorer, but not Mozilla/Firefox. To make it work with other browsers, edit the Proxy settings, and point them at 127.0.0.1 port 8080 for HTTP traffic (not HTTPS, FTP, Gopher, etc.). If you find it blocks something useful on a page, click once on the icon in the System Tray, then reload the page.
Set up an account with Spamcop.net, so that you can report spammers. Then whenever you receive spam, forward it complete with the message headers to your personalised spamcop.net email address. For example, my personalised address is submit.8O4KnmjzR28KsOzQ@spam.spamcop.net. Once submitted, you need to visit the Spamcop.net site to verify your submission, and then an anonymous report is sent to the administrators of the networks/sites that the spammers used or advertised. Spamcop.net is free, but appreciates donations. Unfortunately spammers don't like Spamcop, so try anything they can to stop it working. Donations go towards giving the site enough resilience to withstand DoS attacks, among other things.
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