My opinions on spyware, browsers and email

How does spyware get on you computer? It is partially due to usage of Internet Explorer(IE) and not having a firewall like ZoneAlarm. There are many, many security problems with IE that allow any website to install these spyware programs that start to take control of your system. It is a fundamental flaw with IE and there are tons of people with the problem of spyware on their system. Here is just one article that talks about these problems:

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/249

To give some credibility to the above SecurityFocus web site, they are owned by Symantec (they guys that do Norton Antivirus).

Here is another site, from Firefox enthusiasts, that has a bunch of frequently asked questions for those that are thinking about switching to Firefox:

http://www.switch2firefox.com/

My recommendation (as well as the SecurityFocus article's) is to stop using IE except for specific websites that require it (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com for example) and start using Mozilla's Firefox web browser. I have been using this browser (or its ancestors) for over 3 years and have never gotten a virus or spyware installed on my system. In addition to the security features, in my opinion, it is far superior in features as well, when compared to IE.

The Mozilla foundation just released their Firefox 1.0 preview release which I recommend that everyone download and install. The URL is:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

What email program are you using? If it is Outlook or Outlook Express, I would recommend dropping those as well due to similar security issues. And of course Mozilla has a very good email client, based on the Mozilla framework, called Mozilla Thunderbird. It has a number of nice features with good security as well. It's website is:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

By the way, these programs are free, open source products so you don't have to worry about any fees. They are also similar to use to IE and Outlook in operations so you shouldn't have any troubles using them.