Originally Posted by Shaun

All very sound advice, i use Avast free as my virus program and it works great, AVG used to be good but they seam to have gone down the path of all in one version for firewall and virus protection and it seams to slow the system down some.

The fact is you more than likely have 2 firewalls running right now.

Windows firewall is installed on all systems and does an ok job.

If you are connected to the internet via DSL connection or cable then your router also has a firewall built in to it so there is no need for a third firewall on the system.

Data protection is your best friend as AP has said store all your files, movies ,music, photos and other stuff on a second drive.

I also run redundant drives because i download movies and TV shows so i have 2 drives, one is for the storing of the files then i have a second drive that mirrors first drive just in case it dies.

Best thing to buy is a dual bay usb3 drive don't get a usb2 as this is a bit slow if you have large files, even if your system does not have usb3 you could always get an expansion card installed.

If you are on a laptop you may have to settle for usb2, if you are unsure look at the color of the usb socket if it is black it is usb2 if it is blue it is usb3, never systems will have at least 2 usb3 sockets.