I'm running ZoneAlarm firewall and Norton Antivirus, and that seems to keep me pretty safe from intrusion attempts. From all that I've heard about online security, I've gathered that even if someone has your IP address, they really can't harm you unless they can access your ports.

But lately I've gotten alot of spyware on this machine. I've installed an application called Ad-aware that scans my hard drives and registry for spyware and removes it, and it's really helped to get rid of alot of excess pop-ups that I've been getting recently.

I think the next step I'm going to take in insuring my security online is to get a proxy server to hide my IP address. I've checked out this machine on ShieldsUp and some other security testing sites, and except for my IP address, this computer is pretty secure.