Guide to free internet security
Well, since I can’t see one here and all web holes should have one, I thought I’d write a small list of some usefull programs for security in this crazy place we call the intarwebz. All these programs work great and are totally FREE 
Well, first off, we can cut a lot of our intarweb related problems off with using a decent browser. I swear by Firefox, and you can get it Here. Firefox, Opera or Netscape are your best bets, but i strongly recommend Firefox. It will automatically import all your settings from Internet Explorer, including your bookmarks and LAN/proxy settings, so no configuration is required.
Some features it has over IE and other browsers are:
Popup blocker - works well with all those frigging pop under java ones that get past IE with sp2
Tabbed Browsing - IE stole that from Firefox and Opera
Plugins - There is a plugin on the firefox site for almost anything you can think of, and if there isn’t you can just write one! They’re in a modded version of xml (IIRC) and hey use javascript.
If you get Firefox a absolute MUST HAVE is Adblocker. Its a Plugin that will stop almost every ad you can think of. Some Java ones sneak through but you can just get the links URL (Like www.advert.com) and stick it in the black list and it will kill everything from that ad provider. Seeing as there is like 5 main ones this is great!
Links:
http://www.getfirefox.com/
http://adblock.mozdev.org/
Next, firewalls. We all know that if you have XP with service pack 2 you’ll have a firewall, but any script kiddie who stumbles upon a hacking tool can get past that shit so having a second one that you can control is a must.
I’ve been using Sygate Personal Firewall for 2 years or so now and never found a hitch. It asks you for any little program that wants to send information over your internet connection or LAN connection. You can tell it to accept programs every time, block every time and ask every time. it also has some features I have come to depend on like if, for example, you have set Firefox to be allowed every time but for some reason a virus or other program has modified Firefox, Sygate PF will pop up says “The application ‘firefox.exe’ has been modified since last time, do you still with to allow it access to the network?”. It also warns you if one program that you have added to the always allow list was launched by another program, for example if you download a program from someplace that tries to launch a webpage it will say “The program “whatever.exe” has launched “Firefox.exe” would you like to allow it?”
Has a very friendly user interface and easy to pick up.
Two mirrors.
http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=53687
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Fire…wall-Free.shtml
The next one, Spyware and Adware protection. If you have Firefox or Opera, this wont be a very big problem, but nothing is perfect so some things occasionally get past. The program I use for this is Spybot Search and Destroy. Never found a fault in it, removes everything from tracking cookies to the bastard things that put ad’s all over your desktop that when you try and delete them it says “Program in use”.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Lastly, and maybe most importantly is a good anti-virus, though, with the above programs it’s hard to get a virus unless you are careless with what you download. I used to have no anti-virus software for 3 years, just what I’ve mentioned above, but that was more due to me being a tight ass then out of necessity. Then I found a wonderful program called AVG Free. Its just as good as the pay edition but it has less features. Looks a bit like a No Frills home brand piece of software but it does the job 
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/28415/lng/us/tpl/v5
And thats that, children!
Hope you enjoy, took a bit of time to write 
Next in Sacraments series of omfgable guides and tutorials ‘How to avoid downloading stupid shit and getting viruses’