In general we do not recommend internet security suites, they often interfere with normal computer usage and cause a noticeable computer slowdown.
Here are a few programs we recommend:
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - The free edition of AVG Anti-Virus, a lightweight to the point Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware program for home users.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus - Kaspersky is regarded as the best Anti-Virus available.
Mozilla Firefox - A popular standards compliant web browser. It does not support Microsoft's ActiveX technology used to install many forms or spyware, so in most cases a user is less likely to infect their computer with spyware if they use Firefox as their primary web browser.
Mozilla Thunderbird - A dedicated email client that supports POP3 and IMAP mail accounts and includes a junk mail filter. A word of caution: Thunderbird will import your Outlook or Outlook Express email and then retrieve new messages, if you decide you do not like it and want to go back to Outlook or Outlook Express it is difficult to export these new messages back into Outlook or Outlook Express.
OpenOffice.org - A free office suite by Sun Microsystems, it is able to open most Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.