The Trials and Tribulations of Computer Security

Computer security, and antivirus software in particular, is driving me nuts! This summer my laptop had been slowing to a crawl, then it actually froze to a complete halt. Finally, I couldn’t even boot it up at all.

I rely solely on my laptop when I’m in Northern Virginia visiting my husband. We’d done this several times over the summer and it’d been a frustrating experience trying to work on a computer that works V-E-R-Y slowly, if at all.

During one of its “working, but slowly” episodes I got the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (or BSOD) a couple of times. I proceeded to search the Internet for more information and possibly find a fix for this problem. I found lots of information about the BSOD but the recommended fix was somewhat complicated and involved using another computer which I couldn’t do until I returned home. Since I’m no computer geek, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by having to follow the intricate instructions. At home the kids are the ones using the laptop, so it hasn’t been a priority to fix it. That is, until it I lost my Internet connection.

When my Internet connection and cable are down, I have to take my laptop down to our local Taco Bell to get online. Our provider, Comcast usually can’t fit us in for at least a week. This wasn’t too big a problem until the laptop stopped working all together. When that happens, I’ve go to share my college-age daughter’s laptop with her at Taco Bell until I can either take our laptop to a professional such as the Geek Squad at Best Buy or Comcast fixes our cable issue, whichever comes first. After all, my livelihood revolves around computers and the Internet and I’m in big trouble without it.

I forgot to mention that while all this was going on, I read in the IVAANet forum about other VAs having similar issues and they blamed it on their antivirus software. I then started doing some digging and found whole forums dedicated to discussing their woes involving Norton Antivirus (the antivirus software I was using). I decided that must be my problem too and promptly removed it and replaced it with McAfee (offered free as a service to Comcast subscribers). It didn’t seem to make much difference so I researched McAfee and, lo and behold, others were having problems with this software, too.

In the IVAANet forum, a couple of VAs touted the performance of the free version of AVG antivirus. Although it’s a little tricky to find the free version, I removed McAfee and installed AVG. I stopped having problems with my PC and the laptop started working a little better. However, a week or so later it caught a Trojan Horse virus but there was no way to remove it, quarantine it or anything. I thought to myself, what good is antivirus software if you can’t get rid of the viruses it detects? So I reinstalled McAfee on the laptop and tried to remove AVG. Couldn’t do it.

By the way, I’d also finally, after several attempts, successfully used a previous restore point to a time when the laptop wasn’t having so many problems (It wouldn’t let me restore it to any of the several dates that had restore points created when I knew the computer worked perfectly). I thought this had worked but it hadn’t.

I’m hoping my trials and tribulations with computer security will help others in similar situations. One thing I learned — besides the fact that the old adage, “a little information is a dangerous thing” is definitely true with regards to me and computer technology — was that, through research, you can always find others that are having the same computer problems you are and they are willing to share their experiences as well as what worked for them.

Also, if you get nothing else out of this blog, you’ll realize that whenever you search for information on any software there will always be plenty of those who either intensely love it or hate it vehemently. You have to decide for yourself — or from the advice of a trusted professional — which software you should use.

I have seriously considered using Open Source software and switching to the Linux Operating System. I am entertaining this idea because of the inundation of viruses and other attacks on Microsoft software and its operating system. Mind you, I know Macs and Linux are not exempt from attack; however, they have a bigger, fatter target in Microsoft.

After reading in the latest issue of Information Week’s (August 14th edition), “Security — Myth Versus Reality,” I’ve realized switching operating systems isn’t as easy as it may sound. I’ve definitely got more research to do.