This post is
VERY long, but I found this info at techsupportforum.com a while ago. It's very helpful, so I hope it helps you like it's helped me. This should give you all the info that you are seeking, with links and explanations. And to answer the above questions in short: Yes the above programs are free, No Malwarebytes' Anti-malware is it's not w/ AVG, Adblock/spybot are not the same. All links and stuff are below. Adblock is actually a free addon that you can get FREE for Mozilla Firefox browser.
PC Safety and Security--What Do I Need?
This article is intended to provide you with general hints and tips for PC security, as well as some suggestions for reputable, tried and tested programmes that can help you maintain a clean system. It is not something just to be followed slavishly, without any thought – rather it will provide you with guidelines that will help defend against the large number of viruses, Trojans, diallers and other nasties that lurk in the undergrowth of the internet. So, once you’ve digested every last morsel here, have a think about what
you need to do to improve your security and prevent infection.
Please note that TSF does not promote, or is associated with any software mentioned in this article. Where software is mentioned, or links provided, they are done, as far as practically possible while maintaining the readability of the article, on a purely alphabetical basis.
Note: this is NOT a 'self-help' guide, nor is it intended to be - it is intended to make users aware of the risks they face while using the internet - and it provides suggestions and advice on how to best mitigate those risks. Any user looking for specific advice should post in the General Security forum, or, if you are infected, or think you may be infected, then refer to this thread for further instructions.
This has probably been said before but is still worth repeating:
there is no such thing as perfect security. And this applies not just to PCs!
Now that that’s out the way, let’s move on and see what we need to think about to keep safe and secure while out and about on the web.
The first and most important thing to get is………
commonsense! Yes, that’s what I said, commonsense. Got some handy? Good, you’ll need it. Now you’re thinking “This is all a bit weird – thought I was going to learn about PC security?” You are – just keep paying attention!
One of the most obvious things to
avoid on the internet is clicking ‘OK’ to a pop up. Now, you might think that’s a bit obvious, but many inexperienced users still do this –
DON’T!!. Unless you can be 1000% sure that you know the source of the pop up and that the originator is someone to be trusted, just
DON’T!!. This is one of the easier ways to become infected. This also applies to pop ups that tell you that your system is already infected and if you click here you’ll be able to sort the problem – you won’t!! Chances are you were not infected in the first place, but as soon as you click on the ‘OK’ button you will be! You can find a list of rogue anti spyware programmes at
Spyware Warrior – all compiled and tested by Eric Howes. Rogue or suspect means that these products are of unknown, questionable or dubious value as anti spyware protection. Many will sometimes infect you just to force you to buy their product.
You have been warned! Don’t click ‘OK’ to a pop up! Did I mention that you shouldn’t click ‘OK’ to a pop up? This also applies to e-mail attachments. If you don’t know the sender, delete the e-mail and ask questions later! If necessary make a note of the sender’s e-mail address and reply with a fresh e-mail.
Some words here about a technique known as
phishing. This is where you receive an e-mail or Instant Mesage supposedly from your bank or PayPal or similar institution. The scammers will use something known as
"social engineering" to try and make you respond. A link to your Bank's website is usually included and you are asked to click on the link and confirm your account details.
Never click on any such links! You will be taken to a website that looks like the real Bank website - but it is not! It is a clever spoof website and allows a scammer to capture your Bank security details - you will then become a victim of identity theft or robbery - or both. Banks will
never ask you to confirm security details by re-entering them to a website -
NEVER!! If you want to go to your Bank's website, type the address directly into your browser or use a stored, known bookmark. The previous advice is still the same - delete the e-mail. Many Banks offer an e-mail address to which you can forward phishing e-mails - it's a good idea to do this - it may help reduce the volume of such attacks.
Avoid the nastier sites on the web, like pornography, hacker sites, sites offering ‘freebies’ and other dubious sites. By even just going to such a page – not doing anything else mind, just visiting the site – can result in an infection. This is known as a “drive-by” – without your knowledge or consent you can find your system is home to some real nasties. And here we come to our first suggestion for something that can help – a new Hosts file. What is a Hosts file, I hear you ask? Think of it as a telephone directory. When you want to go to a website, Windows looks in your Hosts file to see if the website address is present. If not, it will go to a server and say “Can I have the address of anysite.com please?” So, you can add known bad websites to your Hosts file with an extra command that tells Windows that the address it’s looking for is 127.0.0.1 – which just happens to be the address of your own PC. So you won’t then be taken to the bad website. Simple. eh? And someone has already gone to all the trouble of listing the known bad websites for you – and you can find that Hosts file
here – just follow the instructions on the page. Of course, if you’re worried that Internet Explorer is the main target for hackers and hijackers…you’re right. There some things you can do to make IE more secure – read
this article by Bobbi Flekman. There is also a tool that places more than 4000 dubious websites and domains in the IE restricted list. This helps prevent downloads from these sites although you can still visit the site. The tool is called
IE-Spyad and here you will find a
tutorial.
continued in next post!
NO maam its not even that much for the year 
Did you read the whole thread? 
Any other browser should be okay!! I visited several Fotkis today using Firefox with absolutely NO PROBLEMS!!
