Once you’ve installed an anti-virus product you should ensure you have a firewall product as well. They can be purchased with the anti-virus package at little or no extra cost and can be set up through the same control panel. The default settings should be suitable for most PC users and will automatically receive updates at the same time as your anti-virus product.
It’s important that you allow the sites you want to use to have access to your PC and deny all other accesses. This will prevent sites which are set up to find unprotected PCs from getting access to yours and using it for malicious purposes.
If you’d prefer to use a different firewall product you could consider the ZoneAlarm firewall which is available from the manufacturer at www.zonealarm.com. Two versions are available: a free basic level firewall and a professional version. Setting up either of these products to run with your anti-virus solution will take a little more effort. You’ll also need to ensure that the product is set to search for new updates when the PC is switched on. As a minimum, if you don’t have this firewall or one as part of your Anti Virus package, you should make sure that the Windows firewall is switched on (this is found in the Security Centre of the Control Panel).