Problems with my Internet Explorer and Downloading From E-mail

Hi,

Starting about three and a half months ago, my Internet Explorer keeps saying that it stopped working and kicks me out of what I am doing, esp. in the middle of very important tasks - i.e. banking, important e-mails, etc. - where my personal information gets banded around. Also, for the past three months, I have also been unable to download attachments from e-mails - both my Gmail and Yahoo! Thirdly, I am finding that I constantly get viruses which attack my computer, and, do not know how they get in to my system. I "Google" these issues that I keep having and solutions are available, in case others have the same problems. Though my system is a Windows Vista and the steps for solving the problems are quite different and am unable to figure out the solutions. Before this, I had Kaspersky, and previously Norton. None of these, I find, are reliable, in terms of protection against malicious software/hackers.

If anybody can help me, resolve these ongoing issues that I am having, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you very much.

Dave Chandra