Scan your hard drive as often as possible - Use your virus scanning program to scan your hard drive for viruses on a regular basis. I've scheduled mine to scan every night while I sleep (the computer is not doing much else at that time, after all). This way any viruses that do slip through your defenses should be caught.

If you run Outlook, then download and install Outlook Security patch (unless for some reason you want to use email scripting, which you probably only need if you are a developer). This will prevent you or anyone on your computer from accidentally opening an attachment which is actually a virus.

http://internet-tips.net/Security/Virusoutlooksecuritypatch.htm

Install ZoneAlarm Pro - Not only is ZoneAlarm Pro an excellent firewall, it is also a virus scanner. It actually scans files as they arrive on your system and tags suspected viruses with a special file type. This will prevent you from accidentally opening an email attachment that is a virus.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Products/zonelarmpro.htm

Subscribe to several newsletters about viruses - It's important to become aware of viruses and associated problems and risks. My recommendation is to subscribe to following newsletters. They are all free and even a quick glance at each one will help you become more aware of what's going on.

Symantec AntiVirus Research Center Newsletter http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/newsletter.html

McAfee.Com Dispatch http://dispatch.mcafee.com/default.asp?

Trend Micro Virus Alerts http://www.antivirus.com/subscriptions/

Additional Information

Backing Up Your stuff - Part 1 http://www.internet-tips.net/System/backup00.htm Backup may seem to be a pain, but it's one of most important things that you can do to protect your system.

Backing up your system is an essential part of your security scheme http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Backups.htm Backups are extremely critical to keep your system secure. If your system is damaged by a virus or an intruder you have a way to recover. Remember, however, that you must think through and test your scheme.

Outlook Security Patch http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Virusoutlooksecuritypatch.htm If you run Outlook and you want to protect yourself, you should install Outlook security patch.

Products - Norton Antivirus http://www.internet-tips.net/Products/nortonantivirus.htm You need antivirus protection for your computer. Norton Antivirus is by far and away best solution for desktop.

Products - ZoneAlarm Pro http://www.internet-tips.net/Products/zonelarmpro.htm ZoneAlarm Pro is quite possibly best firewall product for personal home use that currently exists. Highly recommended.

Viruses http://www.internet-tips.net/Security/Viruses.htm The most important thing you can do to protect your system is install a virus checker (also known as an anti-virus program). These programs will scan your system for viruses and Trojan horses and delete or repair them. There are several products including those by McAfee and Norton (Symantec).

- Since they do not run on your computer, they can be challenging to configure.

Firewall mixture - In my mind, best protection is a combination of both hardware and software firewalls. This is ideal, since both have different advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I use a SonicWall hardware firewall combined with ZoneAlarm Pro, which is installed on my Windows 2000 Professional system. The SonicWall protects my home network since it sits between hub and DSL modem, and ZoneAlarm Pro offers some additional protection for each system.

Testing Your Firewall - To test your firewall, surf to http://www.grc.com and request a probe. You will be given a very good report of exactly what issues were found and what to do about them. Once probe is finished several excellent personal firewall products are recommended. My personal favorite is ZoneAlarm Pro, primarily because it's protection is excellent and it is trivial to use.

Some Firewalls - A selection of personal firewalls is listed below.

- ZoneAlarm Pro - By far best software firewall available. ZoneAlarm offers protection from both incoming connections and outgoing connections. It is also extremely easy to configure, has low system impact and is very inexpensive (a free version is also available).

- Norton Internet Security 2001 (which was AtGuard product from WRQ until a few months ago). Norton is a reasonable firewall, although it does have some vulnerabilities. It offers weak protection from outgoing connections and is somewhat difficult to configure if you want it to operate differently from default.

- BlackIce - A good choice in firewalls. Much easier than Norton to configure, but with same vulnerabilities.

What I've done on my system is:

- Used a SonicWall hardware firewall to protect my entire home network.

- Installed ZoneAlarm Pro on ach system to provide additional safety

- And installed Norton Internet Security for it's privacy protection.

Due to rapidly changing nature of internet, it's very important to be continually monitoring security issues. You may purchase perfect personal firewall today, only to find out in six months that it's been hacked to pieces. So be sure to be looking around, and be ready to get a newer and better product quickly. This is not one of those issues where you can scrimp and save. Your system is at risk.