For those of you who are running Windows XP service Pack 2 (SP2) you already have a built in firewall and you can get to it by access Start, Control Panel, and select Classic view and there you will find the Firewall Icon, if you open this up on the general Tab at the bottom is a link for you to find out how it works.
In basic terms it only allows you to access various features such as your e-mail server for sending and receiving. What it does is to stop other Internet users getting into your computer to do bad things and it does this by closing what is called ports, various functions only work on assigned ports, so by closing the remaining ports it stops unauthorized access.
The other very important item is virus checkers, which can be purchased from many stores and they scan for viruses that can harm your computer via emails and attachments or web accessing i.e. surfing. Some virus/ Internet suites offer built in firewall as well, so you must make sure that if you are running windows XP SP2 that they do not conflict with each other. Once you have installed your virus checker and or firewall it is very important to keep them up to date otherwise you are wasting your money and effort. If you are on broadband they are an absolute must as your machine will be always connected to the Internet, so take time to install and maintain them correctly.
As a footnote our friend Bill Gates is always updating his software to improve security, so again it is important to update to patches for this, Microsoft no longer support windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME for bug and security fixes so you should get onto XP.
