Greetings,  A few words about firewalls antivirus and spyware.
I just finished reformatting and reinstalling Windows on a friend's
machine that he uses less than any computer user I have met.  He still
had his machine attacked in the few minutes he was on-line and there
was nothing I could do to find the problem. I spent over six hours
trying to save his installation and finally gave up and wiped the disk.

He had not kept Windows up to date and had not updated virus definitions
either.  There was no virus found but the machine was destroyed none
the less.  The problems involved running programs that could not be
found but appeared only as running processes and destruction to the
network operation.  I fixed several problems but could not fix them
all.  This was all the result of not keeping up to date and being on
line for a few minutes without a firewall.

Windows XP has a built in firewall; there is no reason for another
unless you are an advanced user and want to have more control with
advanced features.  I used another firewall for a while and found that
there was to much to configure and I never knew if I had the right
settings.  So far, I have had no problem with the firewall built into
Windows XP.  It is not turned on by default, so don't assume that you
are protected.

All the spyware comes in through the browser.  Internet Explorer seems
to have collecting spyware programs as its primary function -- two
minutes online is enough to get a dozen programs installed.

The free browser, "Firefox" by Mozilla, is immune.  I have been running
Firefox for about a year now and have not gotten a single spyware
program except when I have to use Internet Explorer for a minute or two
for some reason.  Try installing Firefox and using it for a month
without using Internet Explorer at all and you will find no spyware
with Adaware.

If you don't want to deal with all the viruses spyware and other
attacks, get a Macintosh.  I recommended a Mac repeatedly to my friend
who is the minimal computer user.  All of his friends recommended a
Windowz machine.  I finally gave up and offered to help him pick a nice
Dell Notebook.  Now he is blaming me for suggesting Windowz.

I have four Windows machines and two Macs in the house, and I spend
many, many hours maintaining the Windows machines and virtually none on
the Macs.  I wish I could use a Mac for all the odd programs I run but
it is not possible.  If you only need a computer for common operations
such as e-mail, office programs music and video, there is no reason to
suffer the torture of owning a Windows machine.

Best regards,
Spencer Chase
Laytonville, Calif.
http://www.spencerserolls.com/