[Biggirl]

Systematic is good.

[Tarpon]

I have a NAT firewall, Linksys, use Firefox with the NoScript plugin ... Thunerbird for email, turn on spam blocking ... problem solved. I also run Ubuntu Linux. but you may not want to go there. The wife runs WinXP with the same stup as above, and is slowly warming to Linux.

[FReepaholic]

...I can purchase internet filters but I have to install them and maintain them on all my computers. Major pain in the neck....

Have you thought about using a proxy server?

You'd only have to load the blocking software on one machine.

Perhaps XP Internet Connection Sharing would work in this case. I've never used it, just wondering.

[Dumpster Baby]

This is what I use with very good results:

Netgear FVS318 8-port VPN Firewall/router

[ThePythonicCow]

What I want is to purchase is a hardware firewall that I can access to program in sites to blocked, either by IP address, MAC address, or URL.

Good grief, man. You'll drive yourself nuts doing that. The list of sites actively dispensing such crapware is too long and changes too rapidly.

Get yourself Firefox, with the Add-ons "Addblock Plus" and "Flashblock". Addblock Plus comes with a list of hundreds of URL's to block, and lets you add or delete if you need to, and maintains the list. Flashblock puts up an icon where any Flash would show, and you have to click on the icon if you actually want to see that Flash.

Hardware firewalls will let you add your own URL's to filter, But each one has to be typed in by hand, and their interfaces tend to be slow and tedious.

With Firefox, Adblock and Flashblock, it's all pretty much automated.

Yes, entering a bad URL once is better than entering it N times. But entering it zero times is better than doing it one time.

[Perseverando]

Here’s a link for PC World’s recent review of “Top Security Suites” - http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125857;page,1/article.html

Surplus Computers has “McAfee VirusScan Plus 2007 for $9 shipped”

Buy.com has “Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2007 from $8 shipped after rebates for upgraders” Not sure if it is the 3 user license. Been using NIS for several years and am very pleased. Used to get it for free after rebates, but paid less than than $10 for the 3 user license.

Here’s the link where I found the info for Norton and McAfee - http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/Computer-Software/124.html

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

The whole internet and Windows thing is getting really awful!

My windows is cumbersome and locks up and is very unfriendly. The spam just keeps coming. I am having nightmares about Viagra and Cialis...with it coming thru on spam and on the endless commercials! any guy that wants viagra will get it, even if it means going to Mexico!ha.

It is depressing, and I am not computer savy and I know some computer friends, but if I have a simple problem they come over and spend 38 hours messing with the computer, reinstalling stuff etc. then the software is f...d up again and they say” Oh, man, it wasn’t anything I did.nah. Uh, just uninstall windows and re load it!!!!”sure. sure thing. will do that right away dude.

Just disgusted tonite with it.sorry for the endless rant.

[txroadkill]

Another little tool that I ran across that you might want to check out is : http://www.networkmagic.com/

I just stumbled across it one day and decided to give it a try and have found it extremely useful. I don't know a whole lot about computers, but one day I had a PC and then almost overnight (it seemed) I suddenly had a PC,  my kids each had a computer and then I got a Notebook when I went back to school , then the Playstation 3 and my Tivo, then I had to hook my PDA to the internet, the next thing I knew I had a network the size of a small business.

That little tool did it all for me, it manages my security, detects intruders, allows me to update and service all of my computers from one PC and will allow me to connect to my home network and access files and even print from my Notebook when I'm at school. It also monitors my kids' computers and emails me where they are going, who they are emailing and who they are chatting with, will ask me for permission to let my kids get emails and IM. The thing is just awesome.

It gives you a free trial for a month and then I think it's $40 for 5 computers and another $10 for 3 more.

There maybe other programs out there that do the same thing, but I have no complaints so far. It also gives you some networking tips too that I found helpful. One thing it suggested that I did was take an old PC that I had and I stripped it down to nothing but an Ethernet port and 6 - 2.0 USB ports and a 300 gig hard drive. I loaded Windows 98 on it and then plugged all of my printers into it and use it as a print server and file server and once a week I back up all my files to it.  Pretty low tech but it was a life saver a couple of months ago when my son's computer got infected.

[djf]

I can email you a 479K HOSTS file that blocks literally a ton of crap.

Slows down your browser, though.

[snowsislander]

For what it is worth, my experience has been that the browser Konqueror is pretty much flawless with respect to blocking pop-up windows.

As to spam, I wandered around the Net a bit, and noticed that there is a Windows program called Spampal that seems to be employing a number of spam-fighting techniques, although I haven't tried it out myself so I can't say how good or bad it is in practice.

[oldcomputerguy]

Check out AlphaShield. Sold on-line or at office depot. I think the pro version is programmable. If the request doesn't originate in your computer, it doesn’t get in. Convenient On/Off switch to drop the net when you want to. Not expensive. I really like it personally. I think it doesn’t work on a dial up however.