Win XP should have a firewall, and if you have DSL, your supplier should have an antivirus. You can then download a Yahoo or Google toolbar that will block popups and spyware. That's what I do and I am a happy camper.
Strange enough, Telecom New Zealand's ADSL program (that's what we call DSL here) doesn't have an antivirus program attached. So we need to buy or download one instead.
Y'all help me out here, since I don't run XP, but it's my understanding XP's firewall blocks incoming, but not outgoing, which makes it pretty useless against trojans or other programs wanting to phone home.
I use ZoneAlarm, which will warn you whenever a program is trying to access the net, (such as "Works Update", which I've found has tried to connect a couple of times even though I selected it not to after reinstalls).
Uh, never mind. I kept reading after posting and see he knows, per post 17.