You don't have MUCH virii? what are you downloading? In the 8 years that I've been using computers, I've only had 2, and one of them was just something that I somehow got on an AOL floppys boot sector, way before I even realy used the internet.
Follow these tips and you will probably rarely if ever encounter virii:
DON'T use outlook express, period. I myself use mozilla mail instead, its a lot faster and more secure. Definitely don't open any attachment, unless its from somebody you know.
DON'T download anything from any unknown warez/crack sites, and especialy porn sites (its probably not virii but always shit that does unwanted stuff to your computer, like dialing uknown 900 numbers). Things linked from big sites like gamecopyworld.com or astalavista.box.sk are fine.
IRC is generaly good, just make sure that you know who you are receiving your DCC transfers from, and if its on an xdcc bot, make sure that its coming from a large channel with a fairly large ammount of users. Same applies for anything being sent over an instant messaging network.
For peer to peer file sharing networks, only download an executable or zip file that may contain executables if multiple people have it, if just one person has it, use caution, if three or more people have it, odds are none of them are having virii problems with it, or else they would have probably deleted it.
If your broadband, and you are worried about network security problems from the outside, configure your nat router to forward ports 135-140, 445, and especialy 5000 to a fake IP address. That pretty much removes the need for any type of firewall. (unless you download something stupid like the classic back orifice or netbus, but if thats the case then your just retarded and shouldn't be using a computer in the first place)
In that configuration I haven't had a single problem with security, and I dont use any wasteful firewall/virus protection software. Trust me when I say theres no hacker in the world who is hell bent attacking YOU individualy and wants to ruin your hard drive just so you can reformat it and start fresh.
EDIT: If you want to ensure that your clean of virii, every two weeks I would go to
www.pccillin.com and run their online virus scan, its free, quick, and doesnt install 100 megs of crap. The only "protection" software that I install on my system is Lavasofts Ad-Aware.
