Protecting Home Computer

[Glenn Williamson]

Have suffered over the last 3-4 months with home computer crashing 3 times. Looking for some guidance of the right type of protection for home computer. Have installed Norton Antivirus. Have broadband internet access. Can you help guide me in the right direction e.g. firewall/spyware remover etc etc?

Many thanks

Glenn

[NHH]

Call me biased, but I would guess that the most obvious cause of your system being slow & unstable would be Norton , I have seen this countless times.
Soon as Norton is removed (including Symantec Live-update and related bloatware) and a more sensible solution is installed, Windows usually gives a big sigh and lightens up a little

As for which anti-virus to use, regular visitors to this forum will know that I always recommend Avast anti-virus, as it's more effective at detection & removal than the likes of Norton and it's free, just goto the downloads page, it's all there.

As for firewalls, if you're using Windows XP and you haven't upgraded to Service Pack 2 yet, do so.
XP Service Pack 2 includes an updated windows firewall which is sufficient protection against incoming attacks.
To upgrade to SP2 just goto 'XP Service Pack 2' on the 'Quick Links' menu on Nethomehelp's front page, click on 'Express Install' and work your way through the installation wizard.

If you're after a third-party firewall or if you're not using Windows XP, then I'd recommend Kerio Personal Firewall which is again free, and can be found on Nethomehelp's downloads page.