What should I be sure I do to upgrade to high speed internet?

My son wants me to upgrade to high-speed internet so he can download music faster to his ipod. I am concerned about what I need in terms of firewalls and spyware blockers and anti-virus and computer hackers. I am running Webroot's Spysweeper with anti-virus and SystemSuite's Netdefense firewall on my dialup connection right now. Should I consider better programs than these?

He also wants to have a wireless LAN in the house. How do I prevent someone from tapping in to that?

We are considering BellSouth's DSL because I can combine my cell, home phone and dialup accounts for about the same money and still get this high-speed connection. I just need to purchase the necessary hardware and software protection. By the way, BellSouth offers a firewall at $10/month. Would that be better advised than buying some third-party firewall such as Norton?

Why is all this stuff so complicated?

What should I be sure I do to upgrade to high speed internet?norton

What you have is sufficient......I would not pay BellSouth for firewall protection as there is no reason for it. The fact that the connection will be running through an external piece of hardware (the high speed modem) makes it, by definition, a hardware firewall...if it has wireless built-in then it'll have firewall settings built-in as well. If you have to get seperate equipment, i.e. your own wireless router, you will be doubling up on hardware firewalls, and the programs you already have are going to still be running the software firewall/anti-virus protection anyways. High speed connections are just a different way to connect to the internet, so if you feel you have protection through your dialup porgrams already installed, the only thing that is going to change is how you connect.