As the world turns more and more web centric, it is important to know some basic precautions which help us surfing the web safely and securely. Granted I am no security expert, but I do know a about a lot of free programs which do help in making your personal computer safe and your online browsing more secure.

1. ZoneAlarm Firewall (Free) and Windows Firewall:
Zonealarm is truly the easiest firewall program I have seen out there and I have been using it for the last 3 years. They do have a free version and a paid version, I have been using the free version. If you really like the program, you can upgrade it but the free version is almost about the same if you just need the basic firewall. Windows systems can additionally ensure windows firewall is running too. These firewall programs block all unwanted traffic 'To' and 'From' your computer. If needed, you can grand permissions to specific programs you trust.

2. AVG Free Antivirus and URL Scanner:
In my opinion, this is the best free anti-virus software program which is almost as powerful as the paid programs. It also has a URL scanner program which scans all web pages as they open for any virus or malware. Although there is no anti-virus (including paid ones) which are perfect, but this is probably as good as it gets.

3. Lavasoft Anti-Spyware or Spybot-Search and Destroy:
It is a good idea to install one of the free antivirus programs, I normally do not keep them running all the time to save my memory (RAM), but I just scan my computer every week.

4. Firefox with No-Script Plugin:
I love firefox over Internet-Explorer. Most malicious programs use javascript and programs like Flash to infect your computer. You can selectively use the No-Script plugin to grant permissions to the selective sites.

5. Other Secure habits:
Never click on email attachments received from strangers. Before putting your credit card information on the form, ensure the website URL and that the web page is secure (https and not just http).

I have written several articles at http://www.writearticles.org and on this website depending on the topic I write. I hope that you will provide additional software and tips to make web surfing secure.