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 Seems like every few months my internet surfing becomes very slow, especially after I download something. I bring it to a repair shop and they fix it. I know little about computers or software. What software (s) do I need to best protect my computer from becoming very very slow again. I'm not sure the difference between antivirus, firewall, anti spyware etc...
Answer What you need is a complete Internet security suite. This sort of product will contain a firewall, antivirus, and protection against programs such as adware and spyware. You need all this to protect against every kind of harmful programs, especially if you are downloading a lot.
A firewall protects you against breakin attempts from the Internet. Viruses come hidden inside other programs. Spyware is programs that snoop on your web surfing and feed extra advertising into your computer, often for fraudulent products.
If you would like to try out some of these Internet security suites free for a trial period, you can download either Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at http://kapersky.com, or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL Don't install both at once as they conflict with each other.
Also -- to prevent future infections, don't use Internet Explorer, as it is susceptible to introducing viruses, adware and spyware into your computer. Instead you could use Firefox, free from Mozilla.org . Instead of using Outlook for email, you could use Thunderbird, free from Mozilla.org, or Eudora, free from Eudora.com .
