Whether you’re a just home user or someone’s ‘knowlegable computer guy’, you’ll probably find yourself doing a few Windows fresh installs from time to time. After going to the trouble, and time expense, of creating a shiny new blank operating system for your PC, wouldn’t you hate to ruin everything by just connecting to the internet?

That’s why it’s important to have a capable Firewall installed before you let your pc lose on the WWW. This might be a hardware firewall that a broadband router provides, or it could be the Windows firewall provided with XP Service Pack 2. If you have neither, a free alternative is Zone Alarm ( [http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp]).

This is one instance where everything you need for a fresh install CAN’T be found on the internet! Having a software firewall, and indeed a free virus scanner like AVG ( [http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5]), on a CD or USB pen, could be more useful than you’d think.