Firewalls: 

#1 Recommendation: Comodo Firewall Pro

We highly recommend this firewall product from Comodo. It is easy to set up and administer, it has a manageable number of pop-up security warnings, and it has gotten rave reviews from security researchers. Plus is it completely free for home and business use, and they plan to keep it that way.

Comodo Firewall Pro garnered the top rating from matousec.com’s comprehensive firewall tests. Those results can be found HERE.

By the way, we also tested the #2 and #3 rated firewalls in this test. As a result, we do not recommend the Jetico firewall. It was way too noisy for us (produced numerous security warnings, and did not seem to remember to trust programs even when told to). But we do recommend the #3 rated Zone Alarm Professional. Please note that it is far better than Zone Alarm Free, which we no longer recommend.

Comodo is a major supplier for digital security certificates. They know security. And they now provide a great line of security software for individual users. In addition to the firewall, they also have an excellent anti-virus application, and a very useful anti-Trojan, anti-malware application based on the venerable BOClean as well as a web site verification tool to help spot fake web sites. All free for home and business use.

Zone Alarm Professional

Zone Alarm Professional is a solid, reliable product. It is not free, but is highly recommended.

Please note: There are enough problems with the ZA Security Suite that we have rescinded our recommendation for this product. It doesn’t play well with a number of other security products and has become too much of a resource hog. This does not apply to ZA Professional, or to the Free version of ZA.

P.S.  If you don’t use a firewall, your computer is a train wreck waiting to happen.

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Anti-virus tools: 

Please Note: To be effective, any antivirus program must be updated regularly (preferably every day)

The following antivirus tools are free for personal use:

Comodo Antivirus. 
http://www.antivirus.comodo.com/

AVG Antivirus.  We recently used AVG version 7 on a system and found 187 instances of virus infected files.  Highly recommended.  Can be set for automatic updates and automatic scans, plus it offers good real time protection from file viruses, including email.  http://free.grisoft.com.     AVG Antivirus is highly regarded and efficient.  

Bit Defender Free Edition.  Bit Defender offers a free version for personal use.  It is useful as a “second opinion” antivirus program.  It does not offer real time protection nor email protection.
 BitDefender Free Edition

Avast Home Edition.  Avast Home Edition is a full featured antivirus program that is for for home, non-profit use.  It includes real-time protection and email protection.  Avast! Home

ClamWin Free Antivirus for Windows:  ClamWin offers a good,  but somewhat slow scanning engine.  It is known for its high rate of virus detection.  But it is not offer real-time, except for MS Outlook, if you install the plug-in during program installation.  (It will automatically detect the presence of Outlook and offer to install this plug-in during the installation process).  We recommend ClamWin for use as a backup antivirus to a real-time program.
http://www.clamwin.com/

AcraBit Free online scans:  AcraBit provides a variety of online scans.
http://arcabit.com/

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Online Scanning Tools:

Online scanning tools provide a good double check and backup and second opinion, and are highly recommended.

Panda ActiveScan:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/activescan/ascan_2.asp

Trend Housecall:
http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp

(please note: Trend Housecall is no longer free. After a brief trial period you will have to pay to have any of the problems that it discovers, removed.  Too bad, it was a great tool for a second opinion and removal.)

BitDefender Online Scanner: 
http://www.bitdefender.com/

F-Secure Online Scanner
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

ESET Online Scanner
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

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Anti-spyware tools:

It is not at all unusual to find hundreds of pieces of spyware on an unprotected system. Do not underestimate the threat these could be to your security and wellbeing. Clearly, no one anti-spyware program removes everything. This is more understandable if you know that there are somewhere in the range of 30,000 potential spyware instances to be found in the wild. No antivirus program or Internet security suit that we know of adequately protects you from these threats.

We recommend using several complementary tools. Fortunately most of these tools are free for personal use.

Comodo BOClean An very useful anti-Trojan, anti-malware application based on the venerable BOClean. Free for home and business use. Comodo is a major supplier for digital security certificates. They know security. And they now provide a great line of security software for individual users.
http://www.comodo.com/boclean/boclean.html

Spybot Search and Destroy
Spybot was one of the first good antispyware programs, and it is still one of the best. We highly recommend using the scanning function, the immunization function, and the download protection. But with well many thousands of threats out there, Spybot can’t do it all.
Spybot Search and Destroy

Spyware Blaster
Spyware blaster specializes in preventing malicious active-x controls from running on your system by immunizing your system against them. It will protect you from over 3000 of these threats. The developer of Spybot strongly recommends also using Spyware Blaster. So do we.
Spyware Blaster

Lavasoft Ad -AwareSE

Ad-AwareSE is a good compliment to Spybot. It does a good job of finding and removing spyware. My only comment is that is rates tracking cookies about the same a a Trojan Horse, and the tracking cookies are nowhere near as serious. That said, I’d dump them anyway.
Ad-AwareSE

Microsoft Windows Defender

This is a another good tool. It is simple to use, but also has enough depth to please the power users amongst us. The new version has been dumbed down, they removed most of the power tools.  But, one benefit is its real-time protection.  If you do nothing else, use this one.  But we don’t recommend that you use only one.
Microsoft Windows Defender

even better:  Sunbelt CounterSpy

Windows Defender and CounterSpy share some definitions and have similar features.  But we recommend CounterSpy for it’s enhanced features and definitions. Version 2 is much improved, reasonably priced and very effective.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy.cfm

Ewido Anti-Spyware

Now owned by AVG, this is a very good anti-spyware program.  It is available in both paid and free versions.  In the free version, some features are disabled.
http://www.ewido.net/en/

Webroot Spy Sweeper

Not free, but another excellent antispyware tool.  It is solid, stable and backed by a dedicated group of folks.  But is can choke a loaded system that is running lots of processes.
http://www.webroot.com/

Spyware Doctor

This is another highly rated product.  Found at PC Tools.  But please be aware that this is not a free product.

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Form Filling and Password Tools:

We have two recommendations for you:
1) KeyWallet is a more basic but very handy solution.
Take a look at KeyWallet  HERE
We use it as a backup to RoboForm, and for some uses it is more handy.

2) RoboForm is a comprehensive solution with lots of options:

RoboForm is a password manager and one-click web form filler with some serious Artificial Intelligence inside. What it can do:
• Save password info from login form.
• Auto fill password info to login form.
• Automatic login to online accounts.
• Fill long online forms from Identities.
• Save “offline passwords” to Safenotes.
• Generate Secure Random Passwords.
• Encrypt passwords using 3-DES.
• Put passwords on USB KeyChain for extra portability.
• Backup & Restore, Print passwords.
• More features: drill down for more.

This is a great tool for automatically remembering and filling in all those online forms and user names and passwords (and keeping them secure). Very cool and top rated by many trusted reviewers. There is a free version or a pro version with some more features.
Click  HERE  to download and try for free.

Note: The free version of RoboForm is included with Maxthon, our favorite browser enhancer.

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Browsers:

Maxthon: A Tabbed Interface for Internet Explorer

Maxthon is a great enhancement to Internet Explorer.  Nice tabbed interface.  Lots of easily accessible options.  There is no going back.   It is what Internet Explorer should have been a long time ago, and what IE7 promises to be. 

Maxthon includes a number of security enhancements such as easy controls for scripts, ActiveX, java, sounds and video.  It also has easy Proxy settings. 

Maxthon is built on top of the Internet Explorer engine, so keep up with your Windows Updates.  But Maxthon can also run on the Gecko engine.

We also make frequent use of the Groups function to save and recall frequently accessed groups of web sites. For instance, we have a group for News Sites and another group for Tech Support of our installed hardware and software. This is far more useful than Favorites. But it also enhances your Favorites list, by allowing you to open all entries in a specific favorites folder at once.

Maxthon also includes a number of additional useful enhancements such as RoboForm and NetSnippets. It also includes a very good integrated pop-up stopper and advertising blocker, flexible system and cache cleaner options, easy Java and ActiveX blocking and tons more.

Note:  Maxthon is built on top of the Internet Explorer engine, so keep up with your Windows Updates.  But you should be doing that anyway, no matter what browser you use.

Maxthon Home Page

Other Good Alternative Browsers:

FireFox is a good alternative to Internet Explorer. Ever increasing in popularity.  Get Firefox
Opera is another good alternative to Internet Explorer.  Opera.com

Opera recently became available for free, with no advertising. 

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Desktop Weather with Severe Weather Alerts:

Weather Pulse is a great little weather program. And the price is right (zero). Just enter your zip code and get constantly updated weather right on your desktop.  The severe weather alerts are a great feature that may be important to your personal security.  This program contains no spyware or malware, can be configured to your liking. and performs very well. We recommend it! To get it, click on the image or the following link:
http://tropicdesigns.net

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Spell Checker:

ieSpell is a fantastic free Spell checker for form text boxes (this includes editing boxes for Wordpress)   Find it Here

Ever wish you could spell check all your submissions in blog comment boxes, forums and any text boxes in your browser?  Well, we really like this little utility. It puts a spell checking function on the right mouse button. It only functions in those text boxes, but what it does, it does very well. It is really free, no expiration, not nags.  All it takes is:  right click > Check Spelling.

Note: Windows XP has built in Zip decompression, so this is not really required.  If you can find it.  And whatever you do, do not buy an unzipping utility.  They are a waste of money.

There are a lot of un-zipping utilities our there.  But we like CAM Unzip.  It is very fast, very easy. And once you set a couple of defaults the way you like them, it takes about 2 seconds to unzip anything, close it and see what you’ve got. (We do suggest you un-check the “Run setup after extraction” option.)

More info about CAM Unzip  or DOWNLOAD NOW

Our present favorite un-zip utility is Quick Zip. We like it’s integration in the right-click menu, with an option to un-zip into a new folder, so you don’t have to go somewhere else to find your files.  Quick Zip can be found at http://www.quickzip.org/

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Free Undelete Utilities:

Have you ever accidentally deleted a data file or folder?   There are those who have and those who will. 

Free Undelete  http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/index.htm

It is just that, a free utility to undelete files. Simple and effective.

We also recommend that you put PC Inspector File Recovery, by Convar.com in your bag of tricks.

It does an excellent job of recovering data files, documents, digital photos, etc. that have been deleted and removed from the Recycle Bin.  And the price is right, as in FREE, and it contains no spyware, no adware.

They also make a excellent program specifically designed to recover digital photos from removable memory cards, called Smart Recovery.  Also Free.

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Misc.

Free inbound FAX to email service. 

Well, in this case, it is not software we are recommending. It is a service that provides free inbound FAX. 

K7.net will issue you a phone number that anybody can use to send you a FAX.  The FAX will end up in your email inbox. 

Please note that this is for inbound faxes only.  There are quite a number of fee based services for inbound and outbound FAX’s. 

http://www.k7.net/ provides you with inbound FAX for free. 

We discovered K7 after our AX machine quit printing.  Please note that we can FAX out with the machine.  We just can’t print.  TK7.net solved the dilemma for us.  It works very well.  Thank-you.

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