I didn't make myself clear enough - sorry.

You did. However you seem to have missed the gist of my post where I was
trying to say that living in the UK isn't an excuse for users having an
unwanted AV solution imposed on them when they purchase a new PC. This
is standard practice world-wide. As for Norton/Symantec their appalling
track record over the last decade is also pretty well documented in both
newsgroups and web forums.

I've had advice from oops on suggested firewall/virus/spyware etc
protection but I'd really be interested in your own thoughts and
recommendations into protecting my ME environment.

I have no knowledge of how you connect to the internet but if using ADSL
or cable the very first thing I would do would be to use a router even if
only using a single PC. Enable NAT (Network Address Translation) on the
router and this will provide a very effective firewall, so good in fact
that this no longer becomes a major issue with the OS however if you want
both belt and braces suitable firewalls commonly used that work reasonably
well with Win Me are early versions of Kerio, formerly Tiny, (v2.1.5 works
well with Win Me)
and Zone Alarm (versions up to and including 6.1.744.001).

AV - AVG (from Grisoft), Panda, Trend, Computer Associates, NOD32 and
Kaspersky and Computer Associates AV (stick with just the AV component of
their internet suite). I wouldn't recommend McAfee although this has
improved and strongly recommend that you avoid any product with the
Symantec of Norton label as most cause major problems with Win Me.
Personally I'm currently using Atwill's Avast! on Vista, XP64 and XP x86
systems, NOD32 on XP, CA on XP and Win Me and have an old Win Me that uses
AVG although have to admit I rarely use that box nowadays. Note I
multi-boot and have numerous operating systems installed on the same PC,
likewise I use Virtual Machines (where an operating system such as Win Me
can run in a window on say XP) which is why I have so many systems

AntiSpyware - Lots of possibilities here but here again personally I tend
not to have anything actually running but do use AdAware SE and Spybot
Search & Destroy with Win Me.
--
Mike Maltby




Tony1966 wrote:

Mike,

I didn't make myself clear enough - sorry.

It is when you go to the well know national PC/electrical stores that
you don't see, or get offered a wide range of firewall/virus options
presumably because there is some sort of incentive offered between
the companies to promote their software. Similarly switching ISPs, as
I have recently done tends to come with "free" 12 month subscription
to one of the big two. It's the typical marketing economy to the
illiterate PC majority. In the same way the best burgers are anything
but McDonalds but you rarely see those either advertised or promoted
by other means. Fortunately my lack of expertise in PCs is made up
for by my expertise in food

I know enough to know that when I have problems there are great
places to come on the web to get answers to problems and
recommendations as to future use.

Ad-Aware SE is only an educated guess when I was trying to work back
step by step to what I had done I came across a number of articles on
the web about people that appear to have had similar problems to me,
though there appears to be no CONSENSUS on whether this is a true
confirmed fault or just wild suspicions like mine.

This differs significantly from Norton where I've always been well
aware of how it slows down your computer and I'm now only too aware
of other issues it can cause.

I've had advice from oops on suggested firewall/virus/spyware etc
protection but I'd really be interested in your own thoughts and
recommendations into protecting my ME environment. I'm already pretty
tight on the Internet Options I permit through IE. but again your
insight would be appreciated