What Rick said. I'd just add that an unprotected Windows machine has an
average of 12 minutes on the Internet before it is infected with some
sort of malware. I've seen it happen in less than a minute, especially
if there was already some malware on the box. Go through the malware
removal steps I gave you in my first post if you want to be sure.

Malke

No idea about the firewall. I'll research that.

You say all  the computer may need is a tuneup. But you listed about six
software packages to download for virus protection etc. Downloading and
running all these seems as time intensive. Plus don't these packages monkey
with my basic Windows XP settings, potentially causing more problems (albeit
presumably fixing the virus problems)?

Can you (or anyone) tell me what sort of routine they now follow to keep
their (brand new  mobo/cpu/hard drive, with Win XP SP2) computer running
well? Must one who wants to "do it one's self" become resigned to  expending
significant labor each week (or each day??) to computer software
maintenance? Is that where the technology (with viruses) is at these days?

For the last two years, I have  pointedly kept things very simple with my
computer: Word processing, spreadsheets, Usenet, email, a bit of photo
edition, a bit of web site building, a lot of internet searching (but when
downloading, it's almost exclusively only PDF files). I keep things simple
to minimize aggravation. Is that a mistaken philosophy these days?

I need a strategy, or I need to know whether, well, one is simply screwed
these days with a computer used a lot for the internet. Having only a small
bank account, and preferring to give my extra money to charity etc., I can't
hire a technician (shudder the thought) to daily check my computer.

Thanks again for trying to help.