After all of the articles I’ve written about privacy, security and avoiding the perils of the web, I have at last experienced some of the headache firsthand. My laptop caught a virus, and while it turned out to be nothing major (at least so far), my experience reiterates the need for good protection against what lurks on the Internet, waiting to make trouble.

First, let me say that I had Norton 360 installed on my laptop. I downloaded and installed the latest version in August, but sometime in the last month or so, it abruptly stopped working. I didn’t notice the lack of protection, however, until my laptop started performing oddly. Start-ups took longer and longer (and frequently froze up), and websites took longer to load. But the final straw was last week, when I tried to run Google searches. Each time I got a page of results from a given search, my attempts to visit the resulting links were redirected to full-page ads for a variety of offers and services. It was maddening. I could type URLs into the browser and go directly to them, but my efforts to click on Google results ended up with ads for “free ipods” and “Victoria’s Secret gift cards.” I was frustrated.

Worse, I didn’t know where the offensive programs had come from. I never click on questionable links, in email or otherwise. I almost never download software; the last time I’d downloaded any was a year ago, and it was from a reputable source. Also, no one else uses my computer, so it was impossible that another user had downloaded something questionable without my knowledge. I wondered if a virus piggybacked onto an email I’d received from someone I trusted, and it bothered me that I couldn’t know for sure. But whatever the source, I was now stuck with a problem. And my attempts to run Norton 360 led to my discovery that, somehow, it had stopped running. What should I do now? Was it even safe for me to send email to anyone? Had the virus made its way onto my jump drive when I’d backed up my photo files? Was my identity safe, or had someone accessed my personal information from my comptuer? I needed to make things right with my laptop, and fast.

I went to the Norton websiteand purchased Norton AntiVirus 2009 for immediate download. I figured, this should take care of my problem! But the problem didn’t want me to take care of it. My attempts to download the software failed because of a “communications error.” I followed all of the troubleshooting advice on the site to no avail. Finally, I found a phone number to call, and after a few minutes, I was on the line with a customer service rep. I felt vaguely bad for the guy… I reported both the problems with Norton 360 and the problem with downloading Norton AntiVirus 2009, and he wasn’t sure which problem to deal with. Finally, we decided to go for the Antivirus, which he told me can’t coexist on the same computer as 360 anyway. Figures.

He walked me through wiping my laptop of all Norton products and attempting another download. Again, it failed. He set up a connection between us and tried to help me download it from his end. Still no dice. Finally, he had to download the program to HIS computer and send it to mine via the connection. I was on hold the entire time the program creeped across the miles, all 56 Mb of it. On the upside, the rep was very nice and clearly stymied by my computer’s efforts to thwart him; I felt like apologizing for the laptop’s bad behavior. Every time he asked me to restart the machine, it took me several tries to get past the freeze-ups and delays.

Eventually, the program was on my desktop, and the rep installed it remotely. He started the scan running, and now that I’d spent an hour on the phone with the guy, we disconnected with some satisfaction. He DID say that he would try to get me a refund for the Norton 360 that had failed me, since I didn’t want to pay for something that hadn’t worked. I have yet to see the refund, but since he gave me a confirmation number for the transaction, I have high hopes that I can track it down, if necessary.

The Norton AntiVirus 2009 scan turned up the culprit: a Trojan virus was crawling through my computer. Norton zapped that bug with no trouble, and I settled back to enjoy a blissful, virus-free computer experience. But then, suddenly, Internet Explorer windows started to randomly pop open, each one a full-screen ad for everything from Proactiv to, surprisingly, Norton itself. Internet Explorer didn’t even have to be open for the ads to appear, blocking everything on the screen. They were easily closed, but they kept coming back. But Norton didn’t see a problem. I did another update, restarted the computer, and did another scan, but nothing turned up. The windows kept popping open.

I searched for answers on Google (now that my Google search was working again), and I saw that other people had had this problem, and that Norton hadn’t recognized it. The fix, many said, was long and arduous, including downloading more security software, starting up in safe mode, and jumping through a variety of flaming hoops. I was beaten down at the thought. I considered the ads to be more annoying than threatening, and I gave some thought to just letting them continue to appear. But then, I talked to my boyfriend, who suggested another solution: Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware product. He said that the free download found far more hidden problems on his own computer than Norton had, so I decided to give it a try.

The Ad-Aware site was deliberately confusing, unfortunately. The company wants to sell the upgraded service, so while the basic Ad-Aware product is free, the means of getting to the free download are distracting and aimed at driving the sale. I accidentally clicked on the wrong button not once but twice, on two separate pages, in my efforts to reach the free download. I got frustrated, as you might imagine. My boyfriend had the misfortune of being on the phone with me at the time, so he got to hear my annoyance firsthand. But in the end, I got the download right, and I started an Ad-Aware scan.

The scan turned up another bug, one that Norton had missed. It completed the fix for me at my request, and since then, the computer has run more smoothly, more quickly, and completely without pop-up ads and unwanted Internet Explorer windows. For the moment, I feel like my laptop is back to normal, and I’m breathing a little easier. At last.

So what have we learned from this little adventure? First (and always), make sure you have good antivirus software installed. Norton is just fine, and obviously their customer service is available if you need it (don’t hesitate to call them if you do). Second, never click on questionable links or open or run files from unknown senders, EVER (and make sure that any other users on your computer don’t download anything without your knowledge). Third, if your computer starts acting strangely, look into it. Don’t assume that it will “correct itself,” because it will only get worse. And fourth, don’t give up if you get frustrated or have a hard time fixing the problem on your own. That’s what the experts are for. If you do everything right and it still doesn’t work, find a phone number for the company and make the call to get some help. In the meantime, do your own research into your problem so you can be informed, even if it just means Googling something like “unwanted Internet Explorer pop-up virus.” You don’t have to be a computer genius to educate yourself about spyware, adware, malware, viruses, worms and other nasties that trouble us.

I was lucky in that the software that got onto my laptop didn’t seem to be after my private information or out to destroy my machine. It was annoying for me in that I had always tried to follow my own advice with online security, and I still ended up having to deal with it. But in the end, I learned a lot, and now, there’s not a pop-up ad in sight.