Before trojans, foistware and rootkits etc were around and viruses were something that only unlucky corporations had to occasionally deal with, the Norton products were a very good security solution. However, the last decade or so has seen it descend into less than useless bloatware. The 360 product has gone some way to redeeming the Norton/Symantec name but it's got a very steep hill to climb before it can even begin to compete with capable products such as those from Kaspersky, AVK and the like.

The following are all free:

A few simple tools such as SpywareBlaster, Ewido (Now AVGAS), A-Squared (Similar to AVGAS but suitable for Win9x based systems), Spybot S&D and perhaps Ad-Aware are necessary additions to any system. Comodo provide excellent firewall software whilst Avast is a very good AV solution.

Resources such as XP-AntiSpy, CCleaner, Black Vipers service configs, MVPS hosts file updates should also be studied and used. The Windows Add/remove Programs feature should be a first port of call and any unnecessary bloat should be removed. All third party programs should be installed using the "Custom" option and anything that isn't needed or isn't wanted should be left out. The absolutely absurd Windows Explorer default settings of hiding all sorts of files and folders from the user should be immediately rectified. You need to know your system and what's on it!

Online scanners from the likes of Kaspersky, X-Block and PCTools etc should be used to benchmark and double check existing security installations. Online lookup tools such as those from NetMonitor or KarenWare should be used if phishing is suspected. If POP or IMAP based mail is used, then POPFile or Mailwasher is a must.

It's very difficult to advise properly here as the limitations of this board make it impossible to show meaningful examples, tutorials and studies. I've had a warning regarding content so I'm not allowed to post links to other forums and resources which would be extremely helpful to this community. It's sad but ours is apparently not to reason why. As a credited member of ASAP (Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals), it's more than sad for me - it's downright annoying!