After getting my new computer i've been very careful about what websites to visit and never click links that i don't know about, obviously this might be standard stuff to most people but when i was younger and had my old computer i found that i used to get hit by a few viruses here and there.

Now that i'm older and (Questionably) wiser internet security is my number 1 priority, I have firefox installed with Adblocker Plus aswell as NoScript and Betterprivacy and of course an Anti-Virus, this is how i usually protect my computer.

But my question is how do YOU protect your computer or rather, Which websites do you know NOT to go on or which links Not to click? Do you use MCafee site advisor or a different website to determine which websites to go on or do you just go to a website and hope your addons and Anti-Virus will do the job for you?

Common sense.

I have never gotten a virus on my computer and I've been surfing the web for years. MOST viruses you have to actually download...they won't just appear by going to a website.

Honestly I just base it on my own experience in the past...what site I'm coming from...the web address on the actual link...and just the overall feel of the whole thing.

It's worked like a charm so far :)
Now to ammend that...I do use an anti virus and a firewall. ;)

I use the free Avira software and the McAfee Website blocker program. It works pretty well.

I have noscript and adblock plugins installed in Firefox. Those are the primary reason I stick with Firefox, really. They stop unwanted content from using scripts to install nasty crap on your system or hijacking your browser.

Actually, I remember a while back that some websites might look safe but they would be laced with malicious ActiveX and java controls that would be downloaded onto your comp sometimes without your knowledge. Used to be called "drive-by attacks" where just be surfing on the site without clickng on anything would get you infected.

Bah...checking sites? That's for pussies.

I just use my trsuty real-time scanner, and my firewall, and perhaps a link scanner, and flashblocker/adblocker, and the like.

I use the WOT (Web Of Trust) plugin for Firefox. It's a site where users can rank the websites according to several criteria. And the result is that, when I do a google search, for example, next to the website link there's a coloured icon which will tell me what level of trust this website is ranked at.

Of course, the system can be abused for small websites that don't get much visitors, but in general it's not bad at all.

Sounds good. I myself use Iron with Adblock/FlashBlock(Flash blocked mainly to avoid annoying flash addons to some chansites and such from running), and also have my AV rating sites for me that I never visited yet.

I pretty much don’t. End of the story. Obviously I won’t follow spam links but that’s about it.

I have a fantastic new computer on order, and since I'm *really* paranoid about getting junk on it I'm planning to install VirtualBox and doing all browsing from within a guest OS (probably Linux).

I can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few safe sites in my time.

I use Linux.

From a professional point of view (and if you have some cash to spent) you purchase a decent hardware firewall with gateway security package and ensure it is constantly monitoring your traffic at the gateway point... problem solved.

I run Sonic Wall TZ210W with Comprehensive Gateway Security, which includes anti-virus, anti spyware and anti incursion software that runs on your hardware firewall at a gateway point (at all times). This means that all traffic (incoming/outgoing/compressed/in VPNs and so forth) is scanned before it arrives to my PC. Problematic traffic is of coruse rejected before it does any damage...

I have personally used the above solution for a number of years and past that I do not use any client (PC based) anti-virus software. I have not had a virus or malware since then. When used with some basic common sense and in conjunction with use of mainstream trusted applications (for tasks you use your PC) only things are just fine.

The solution is not cheap (costs about $1k) but it is reliable and let's your machine do what it does the best, while offloading all the security packages to a different point.

Of course, you still need to trust your friends' USB sticks :)

I think your measures are already quite good - I am using the same. You also might want to use spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) to clean (mostly your browser) of little spies or adware and they can block often used fraud sites in the browser (click on immunize).

Besides, I never register or input any other personal information on websites that do not belong to companies that are well known, covered by media/wikipedia/..., have a certain quality of design, ...

Maybe you also want to install the addon flashblock (you can whitelist sites, e.g. youtube) to further avoid little flashy spies. And for additional security, a keyscrambler (against key loggers) and truecrypt (for storing sensitive data in an encrypted file/emulated drive seems like good measures too.

It works perfectly since ever. Never had a virus from the internet. Once I received one via email per attachment, but my anti virus programm immediately quarantaned the message.

So I feel pretty safe.