Vertigo: Other ways to be safe: Use a firewall to protect your PC from invaders. Windows XP has a builtin firewall. You can turn it on, if it's not. You can instead use Zone Alarm as well. Use antivirus and be up-to-date. Norton is very good, but make sure you set it up to receive automatic updates. I hear more people complaning about spyware these days, more than viruses, so you can install a program such as AdAware (free at download.com) and run it frequently.