Robert writes:

<<Should all 5 be used together? If do, any interactions?>>

In general, there should be no conflicts. As always, that depends entirely
on your system, and what sort of state it's in. What's right for me may be
a disaster for you.

I wouldn't have too many "active" programs standing on guard at once---by
that, I mean programs that are running more or less as firewalls---perhaps
no more than 2 "hijack" ones plus your regular firewall.

For what it's worth, I have Spyware Guard, TrojanHunter, and Zone Alarm
actively running when I'm connected---plus of course AVG antivirus.  This
seems to keep the system reasonably clean, though being a bit of a freeware
junkie, a lot of spyware does need cleaning out every couple of weeks. For
that, I use Spybot, AdAware, and occasionally one called "A-Squared 2"
which looks good and seems to catch most of the nasties---and is very
configurable. Shame it's not better known.

And remember, each is only as good as its most recent updates.

There's no harm in having plenty of scanning progs---the more the better.
These are the passive progs you only run when you want them to scan the
system--perhaps once a week, depending on your internet habits.

Now, turning to Annie Bradley's problem, I'm wondering if you have one of
those viruses that disables Nortons. With AOL Messaging, especially if you
have broadband, I'd be using a lot more protection than that. Without a
good firewall, you are inviting disaster. I've never used AOL (and never
likely to) but from what I read, it is as much a prime target for security
hackers as is Windows Messenger.

Do an online virus check, and use the various spyware progs which Sven has
mentioned in his always excellent advice. Yes, every one of them.

Free online checks, all highly recommended:
http://www.housecall.nl/ (in German, but just click the "scan" link)
http://us.mcafee.com/default.asp
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Also go to the Shields-Up website, do the security scan for your computer.
You may find it rather an eye-opener, well worth a visit.  Download the 3
free little security patches you'll find there. These will help a lot in
securing your computer.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Don Penlington




 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html