Help a former Mac user

[Los Feliz Slim]

I am one of the legions of Mac users who bought a PC for poker use. I've never worried about viruses, etc, because it would seem that virus writers care as much about Mac users as poker sites do. Now, of course, I'm paranoid, because you can't go 30 seconds without hearing about someone's computer getting eaten.

I use the PC (Inspiron 6000) to connect wirelessly to my DSL connection. I don't access any other important accounts (bank, cc, etc) from this computer. I also don't ever download email on this machine. It came with Norton Internet Security, which does some sort of scan every day.

My question is: Are there steps I should be taking to protect myself from the boogymen?

[FouTight]

too much fascism in the MAC world is to blame for your worries I presume. You have probably been force fed how BAD PC's are and how they blow up if you look at the wrong. The truth is, I use computers without virus scans, but thats just because I reinstall every 5 months. As long as yo keep your virus scanner up to date, do windows updates (very important) and perhaps get the microsoft anti-spy scanner, and you'll be A-okay fine. (HEY, maybe even get a GAME or two, you can play GAMES on PC's, did you know that)

[smoore]

Dear lost mac guy,

1) Windows Update - set it on automatic since you own the software.
2) Virus protection subscription - current patches!
3) Use the built-in firewall.
4) Spyware detection and removal.

Windows can survive on the internet like this.

Regards,
an avid UNIX fan who uses OSX now.

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
2) Virus protection subscription - current patches!
4) Spyware detection and removal

[/ QUOTE ]

Does Norton AntiVirus take care of this?

And don't get me wrong, I'm still a Mac guy, but it's not so good for the poker.

[MrMoo]

Norton will work for antivirus. Go to download.com and get AdAware to take care of the spyware problems.

If you've got XP and SP2 you'll have a builtin firewall.

[hopp]

Norton Anti Virus will take care of viruses as long as you are getting the automatic updates.

As MrMoo suggested, download Adaware (http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button) and install it. It's one of the best free utilities for detecting and removing spyware, dialers, trojans, etc.

If you browse the Internet on your PC, you may also want to download the Firefox web browser (http://www.download.com/Mozilla-Firefox/3000-2356_4-10393899.html?tag=lst-0-2) and use it insted of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. It's free, and a lot more secure and less prone to hacks and hijacks.