[Terpfen]

The difference is, that security isn't available out of the box.

And by the way, Norton products suck. All of them. Get NOD32 or Kaspersky AV, and grab the WPA2 patch from Microsoft so that you can upgrade your wireless security recommendation.

You also left out SpywareBlaster and an actual physical firewall of some sort--ideally a separate box, but in most cases a router would do. Software firewalls are bogus.

Using the configuration of XP SP2, Firefox, Kaspersky, Spywareblaster, and a router, I've had precisely zero malware infections of any type.

[Turbopilot]

The difference is, that security isn't available out of the box.

No, but it's so easily and freely accessible that it's hardly worth complaining about.

And by the way, Norton products suck. All of them. Get NOD32 or Kaspersky AV, and grab the WPA2 patch from Microsoft so that you can upgrade your wireless security recommendation.

I've been happy with Norton's security, though it does take up a lot of system resources. I'll look around next time my update subscription runs out.

You also left out SpywareBlaster and an actual physical firewall of some sort--ideally a separate box, but in most cases a router would do. Software firewalls are bogus.

I haven't tried Spyware Blaster, though it's been recommended to me. And item #5 on my list was a hardware firewall.

Using the configuration of XP SP2, Firefox, Kaspersky, Spywareblaster, and a router, I've had precisely zero malware infections of any type.

Me neither, using my above recommendations.