The following week is a blur. In several trips over the next two days, Glenn exorcised the bad software that had hijacked my computer in the first place. Then he reinstalled the Norton anti-virus program. But now a new problem emerged, one that we were never able to fix: No matter what Glenn did, he could not install the Norton firewall software. He was baffled.
I don't understand all of it except that the problem boiled down to this: Windows couldn't boot up properly while a certain Norton program file was active, but the Norton firewall couldn't operate without its being active. Glenn spent hours taking that file -- SYMTDI.VXD -- on and off the computer, each time having to reboot. Eventually he installed more memory -- triple what we had -- because our limited supply made the reboots ungodly long.
_____Live Discussion_____
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Monday, 2 p.m. ET: Fast Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro will be online to discuss cybersecurity.
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_____How to Stay Safe Online_____
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'SP2' a Must For XP Users (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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When to Leave What Closed (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Computer Users Need a Good Backup Plan (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Take Care to Guard Your Windows (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Skepticism Is the Message for E-Mail (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Geek Speak (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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He called Symantec Corp., which makes Norton, went on its Web site, found our problem described on the troubleshooting pages, printed them out and followed them. The firewall still wouldn't work, giving messages like the program couldn't be "initialized" or, adding insult to injury, "You do not have the necessary rights to configure the item you have double-clicked." Sheesh.
The computer was now clean and fast, but without a firewall I couldn't go on the Internet without risking another invasion. That meant no IM-ing and no ability to work from home. I was frantic. And I had many empathizers.
One morning, when I was obsessively trying to make the computer work, the pediatrician called to say my daughter's routine blood work looked fine, and then, upon hearing about my computer, spent 20 minutes ranting about her episodic experience buying a new printer. It wouldn't work with their computer, no matter what they did. Bottom line: After hours on the phone (literally hours, she swears) with the manufacturer (she and her husband took turns), and many additional hours plugging and unplugging cords, etc., the manufacturer concluded she needed a new computer. She bought one. The printer still didn't work. It had been defective all along. She exchanged it. She needn't have bought a new computer, after all.
I cluck-cluck-clucked in heartfelt sympathy through the entire recitation. I had heard similar laments from nearly everyone I know.
A few hours later, I actually left the house. Amazingly, I immediately bumped into a friend who said he had had the same problem: His Norton anti-virus appeared to prevent installation of the Norton firewall.
Surely this was a joke.
I rushed to tell Glenn, who was coming to a similar conclusion. By now, two weeks had passed and I still had a computer I couldn't use to connect to the Internet. Finally, last Monday, a young summer intern working as a computer technician at The Post suggested we stop trying to make Norton's firewall work and instead try a program that he said was much, much better from ZoneLabs.com that could be downloaded free from the Internet.
Better? Free?
