[bringmoney]

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500
Windows 98 SE
256 MB RAM
Bell South DSL with a Westell Versa Link Model 327W modem.

I have had Symantec Norton, which ate up my system resources so badly my computer was down to a snail crawl. I have recently uninstalled Norton.

I have had McAfee, but it did not work well and gave problems so I uninstalled it.

At present I have no security other than some software I have added over the years such as:
Spybot Search & Destroy,
Ad-Aware SE Personal
Registry Mechanic
Xoft Spy 2nd edition
RegCure

I use these programs often but I'm not sure if they are really protecting anything. Plus the fact that they don't even do anything unless I run them thru a cycle. I don't even know if I have a "Firewall" anymore. The last modem I had from Bellsouth had a built in firewall which Bellsouth claimed was better than Symantecs, but the modem was very troublesome and they replaced it with the present modem which is a different brand. The Bellsouth repairman did not know if the new modem had a firewall or not, sooooooo.

Any suggestions on what I need to do?
I do use the computer for some internet banking which makes me very uncomfortable at present.

Thank you for your advice.

[Nesjemannen]

Buy/download a free antivirus program and firewall - And for your system recources -
Buy more RAM, 256 isn't that much if you use several programs

[bringmoney]

Thank you for your help.
Any particular suggestions as to what brand, etc?

[blues_harp28]

Hi.
AVG.
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2
Or.
Avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html

Firewall.
Jetico
http://www.jetico.com

Running an online Virus scan once a month just to be sure.
Online scan

[Nesjemannen]

And if you want a paid one, the best ( in test ) antivirus is Softwin's Bitdefender.
Check it out:
http://www.bitdefender.com/



But then again, you should really get more RAM, increase to around 500 or 1k

[bringmoney]

Thank you all,
I have bought the AVG 2 year subscription w/firewall.
It's downloaded, it' already run a scan and all is well on the homefront.
Thanks again for your help.

Question also,
with this new program, should I still run Spybot or Ad-aware?
Will AVG do all in it's place. If it is not needed, I can uninstall it.
Thank you,
bringmoney

[golferbob]

i ran avg free on my old computer along ad-aware and spy-bot. you might want to try super antispyware. i use the free one and scan once a week.

http://www.superantispyware.com/

[Nesjemannen]

I would recommend ( If you don't got AVG anti-spyware ) to say goodbye to Ad-Aware and hello to SUPERAntispyware and Spybot S&D

If you do got AVG AS, then you don't need the two others, I think. But I would have kept Spybot S&D

[bringmoney]

Nesjemannen
"I would recommend ( If you don't got AVG anti-spyware ) to say goodbye to Ad-Aware and hello to SUPERAntispyware and Spybot S&D

If you do got AVG AS, then you don't need the two others, I think. But I would have kept Spybot S&D"

Thank you Nesjemannen,
I bought the complete pacakage which does include AVG AS. Matter of fact, there's quite a bit of stuff included as well as a fire wall.
For Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, one or the other removes my "System Tray" when I run it. I've had to re-install System Tray 3 times lately.
I do appreciate your advice on the subject.

[Nesjemannen]

I would advice you to update your Ad-aware to the 2007 version. That may be the problem? I'm not so familiar with the old SE version.
Or you could just try to uninstall ( the laggy ) Adware SE. It's not better than your AVG pack at all.

Try one of these options - If you still got the Tray problem, please let me know.

Good Luck