from breaking into your Windows PC across the Internet. If you have a home network or network at a small office in which all the computers access the Internet through one Windows PC, install the firewall on that one PC. A program called BlackICE is the best by far. Get it fromwww.n e t wo rkice .com. If you don't have an Internet connection, you don't need to install a firewall program. A firewall has no use except as a barrier against unwanted entry from the outside. If your PC is not connected in any way to the outside world, don't install a firewall program.

tell you the bad part about antivirus software: Most of it is overstuffed and underpowered, so skip the two big names (Norton and McAfee) and buy Fix-It from Mijenix instead. Fix-It comes with good AV software that doesn't overload your PC the way the Norton and McAfee programs do. (Norton is made by Symantec, so avoid Symantec antivirus software if it's sold under that name, also.) Antivirus software is no good if you don't run it. In an ideal world, you would run it all the time. But you probably can't. AV software usually gets in the way when you (or your kids) are playing serious games. So as soon as you install your AV software, find out how to disable it so you can keep peace in the family. Then make sure you know how to re-enable it when the PC is not used for games.

enter your computer when it gets the mail. You don't have to read the mail; just getting the mail is enough. (I'll explain how this happens in a minute.) Use another program. Netscape Messenger is fine and does not have the problem. You can get Netscape Messenger free by downloading and installing the Netscape Communicator suite. Go towww.netscape.com. Outlook Express is not the same as Outlook 97, Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000. If you are now using one of those Outlook programs, you can keep using them if you turn off the View function. Viewing a message in Outlook can allow viruses to enter your computer. Just as with Outlook Express, users of Outlook don't have to open or read the mail to let viruses in. Just viewing the mail is enough. (Outlook Express always shows the mail in the View function, visibly or not; even if it seems that you can turn it off, you actually can't stop this behaviour. So you can't block some of the newest viruses. That's why Outlook Express is unacceptable.) If you can't switch to a safer e-mail program right now, or if you want to keep using Outlook Express despite my warnings, go to

directions you see there. But please understand that the basic problems of Outlook Express are not fixed by the directions Microsoft will give you at this site. The fix is only good for one kind of problem.