i understand that there are really good anti-virus programmes that are free to download off the net, does anyone have any experience and/or recommendations?
lol excellent, just had a browse on this site and that and ZoneAlarm firewall seem to come quite well recommended. what other additional things to people recommend, like spyware? or things to help stop hacking? etc
for a firewall zonealarm is highly recommended, though personally i prefer kerio personal firewall because i find it a bit faster. not quite as user-friendly though.
Test your firewall at gibson research, shields up! With Kerio it failed on a couple of ports. But I have since tried Comodo Firewall which is free, that passed all port tests!
Spywareblaster is excellent for spyware etc.
Avast and Antivir both give very good virus protection too.