For starters, Black Ice is garbage! I use Zone Alarm Pro and Tiny Personal Firewall in tandem, and they are a very good start. Also, go to Steve Gibson Research and get their FREE programs to help close off sections of your computer that firewalls tend not to address. One more thing, for anti virus, stay away from Kaspersky Labs. Their programs will probably lock up your computer, and they never even give you a chance to see if they are any good. This really is stuff that is bad news!