Things that have made life nicer:
Running a Pi-Hole as my DNS server. Blocks most ads with provisions for both white and blacklists.
The following Firefox plugins:
Cleanlinks, Disconnect, NoScript, Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin
Had some potential nasties on my Mac and learned that as of late 2015 Avira seems to be the best free option. Be careful on PC though as without extra measures it seems it might pin your CPU at 100%…
If you get bitten, this script looks amazing at first glance. A simple GUI for it.