Hi!

I personally recommend ZoneAlarm to friends & family who are not computer experts. I do this because it is easy to understand and user friendly...................there are much more sophisticated products around, but these require a certain level of understanding to maximise their effectiveness.

I run AVG on this particular machine (the free version). It has two drawbacks as I see it:

1. Updates are not daily
2. It updates the whole application, rather than incrementally.

For my friends I usually recommend PC-cillin, as it automatically updates "on the fly" and this only takes a few moments, even with a 56.6 dial-up connection. I have never seen this process crash what was already happening, even on low specification machines..........this is my main worry about autoupdate mechanisms. On the "downside" it does tend to be a little "oversensitive" in its detection, as I have seen false positives. That said, I'd rather have a false positive than a trashed system.

If you are looking for a "load it and forget it" solution, this combination is not bad.

I recommend that you visit http://www.diamondcs.com.au and have a look at their anti-worm and anti-trojan products. Whilst you are there get a copy of the free "RegistryProt 2.0".....it has saved my @ss on more than one occasion

You might also like to look at the WilderSecurity and AnalogX websites for some more freeware/security ideas.

Hope that this helps