Security advice needed

Hi. I have never kept up to date with any security features that were sent with my computer. I assume I don't have a secure system. I don't even know what/if was installed on my machine. I am babbling. I guess I am trying to say, I don't know the first thing about virus protection, virus scanning, firewalls, spyware, etc. or any of the terms I hear that are pertaining to (or I think are pertaining to) computer security. What products should I buy to help keep my system safe ? I don't have a clue as to what companies do the best as far as keeping up to date, ease of usage, cost, where to get them (store - download)etc. I even what type of products I need.

Thanks for your advice.

It is just my home computer.

Intel Celeron Processor
191 MB RAM
19 Gig Hard drive
Windows ME

 

You may find this hard to believe, but the better programs of the type you are looking for are FREE.
AVG AV for free
Kerio Personal Firewall
SpyBot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware
Free online scans.
Housecall, online AV scan
Online Trojan Scan

 

Thanks very much. I downloaded and ran all of them. Seems I had no viruses, and things are up and at em. Anyway, I just went to one of my favorite sites (perfectpeople.net), and it won't let me view any photos. Puts this error message in its place .....

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/httpd/vhosts/perfectpeople.net/httpdocs/index.php3 on line 50

Any idea what that is, and will I now be restricted from many sites ? .. I don't understand, if my computer was clean be4, why be restricted from a site that I've used be4

Thanks,
Doug

 

Did Spybot or AdAware 'find' anything when you ran them?. If so, and you had what was found removed, that could have stopped that particular site working because it needs what was removed in order to display properly.

If you don't remember what, if anything, has been removed in Spybot you need to click on the 'Restore' icon and in AdAware on
'Quarantine'. Unless you changed the default settings when you installed them, both programs keep backups of what they remove and you could try restoring anything you find to see if that makes the site work OK.

If that's not your problem I'm afraid I don't have any other ideas.

 

That error message is not on your end, it is their server.