AVG is a product from Grisoft.

This Anti Virus program is fantastic. It's the only virus program that saved me in certain instances that McAffee and Norton didn't. The best part about it is it's FREE. Of course it's free for non-commercial use but it will load on your business computers too. AVG also ties into your email client so it scan all email on the fly. There are many other great AV programs out there like Avast and Panda but I like AVG over all.

If you have been zapped by spyware and other hijacking software there are many softwares to choose from which is totally confusting. There's Ad-Aware which is good and probably runner up but not my favorite choice. Then there's a swarm of others which some probably are amazing but I've only had time to test out a few in the work place. My latest was of course MS Anti Spyware which in the beginning of it's inception I must say was super. Then started losing it's power. Since it's still in Beta mode it will expire after several months if you use it.

Spybot has come so far from just a year ago.  They've improved their engine and methodology to track and kill these little buggers. Spybot is FREE also and I recommend it strongly.

Windows XP SP2 comes standard with a decent firewall built in it. If you are behind any router including wireless routers then you probably were given an internal IP address and I wouldn't be too alarmed. However, many ISPs (internet service providers) give you a modem and an external IP address. I love ISPs that do this because it makes things a little easier and don't have too much configuring to set up a home or business network.

However, for all of you that just have your lonesome computer attached to an old Verizon modem or a Cable Modem you are EXPOSED to the outside wonderful world of hackers. Don't think they'll attack you? Hackers port sniff external IPs constantly for open ports. Also by the time you read this they've probably found away around Microsoft's built in firewall. So Ladies and Gentlemen please download and install Zone Alarm.

Zone Alarm is FREE and is wonderful and for those that are paranoid you can install it on your computer even if you're behind a router or a firewall/router. Also I want to add that Zone Alarm carries security packages for you which are amazing which you will have to purchase but well worth it. One of my favorite packages they sell is the Internet Security Suite. This has all security measures covered. Anti Virus, Web content filtering, Anti Spam, Email Security, Spam Blocker and more.

Don't we all hate spam. Most decent companies today have spam control built into their mail servers. So if you're using a mail client (i.e. Outlook) or a web mail client (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo) the spam was filtered by the time you read your email.

However, there are companies out there that don't offer spam control or charge you for it. It will be eventually be standard to any email hosting package you will get. For now I Hate Spam is a program that ties in with your current Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora. AOL and Mac are not supported. The software scrubs your email clean and places all your spam and unwanted emails in a quarantine folder. There is a charge for this software but is well worth it. I have spam contol on my mail server and I have I Hate Spam installed too.

Internet Explorer is constantly worked on by hackers and spyware creators to find loop holes and bugs in this browser to bring it down. Firefox on the other hand hasn't been attacked and ripped apart like IE. Firefox has a Google search interface that comes standard with it's browser unlike IE. Also if you don't like Google to be your standard search interface you can choose and add from a large variety of choices.

Let me also mention that Firefox is much faster than IE and is besides safer and I haven't crashed yet. Only one issue I've had with Firefox and this goes for all other browsers out there and that is you will have to use IE to do your Windows Updates. Unless you set your computer to do 'Automatic Updates'