AboutCarolyn Meinel Expertise I cover Windows, Unix, TCP/IP and Ethernet security questions. I do not cover Mac, Palm Pilot, or other networking issues.
Experience Books by Carolyn Meinel: wrote a chapter for The Hacking of America book (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567204600/happyhacker)
My article Code Red for the Web for Scientific American was reprinted in the book Best American Science Writing 2002 (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060936509/happyhacker). My book The Happy Hacker: A Guide to Mostly Harmless Hacking is now in 4th edition with a Japanese edition (see http://happyhacker.org/hhbook/).
Question What is the best security software on a new computer with vista?
Answer Two of the world's best Internet security suites offer free 30 day trials. See http://kapersky.com, or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite at https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL
Personally I use Norton Corporate Edition plus Zone Alarm (zonealarm.com) for firewall and to fight adware and spyware. I don't much care for the Norton home version, though. Zone Alarm also offers a free 15 day trial of their complete security suite. I didn't like the way their antivirus feature works, which is why I just use the firewall and antispyware features.
Since some people have different needs than others, I believe the best approach is to try before buying. Be sure to uninstall one before trying the other because antivirus programs can fight each other, causing your computer to crash. Firewalls, however, can work together.
