A Virus on my Mac Computer

My daughter just headed to Alaska for the summer to be a kayak guide. My wife and I would like to go up and visit so we started planning a trip. Unfortunately rental cars are really expensive in Alaska and so I started shopping around to some of the more inexpensive agencies. I got an e-mail from Dollar Rental Car and so I decided to check them out. Unfortunately when I tried to go to the site, it said my computer had a virus and wouldn't let me in.

Whenever I see a virus warning in my browser, I don't pay it much mind as it is very difficult for a website to scan your computer that quickly and determine you have a virus. More than likely there is a setting in your browser that it doesn't like and throws up a message indicating you could have a virus. It is better to be safe so I did a bit of checking.

The first thing I did was go to Dollar's website on another computer. I did not receive the offending message and so I knew it was not their website giving a blanket message. Next I tried another browser on my Mac. I have Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Normally I use Firefox and so I tried Chrome. That worked fine and my guess is that I have a setting in Firefox that Dollar doesn't like.

Next I looked into finding some antivirus software for the Mac. This is where things get tricky. Doing a search can often lead you to false solutions that actually install malware or a virus on your computer. I went to a reputable source to see what the best antivirus software is. There are a number to choose from and some are better than others. I ran through several reviews and found a free one that I trust. The downside of free is that you are always being prompted to upgrade to the paid version. I'm willing to live with that for now. The free versions also don't have all of the features in the paid ones and so if you need something more than bare-bones functionality, you may need to shell out a bit of money.

I suppose it is better to be overly cautious and report potential problems instead of ignoring real ones. It has discouraged me from renting a car from Dollar because I cannot trust their website. Fortunately they are no cheaper than some of the larger brand rental car companies. Ultimately I will probably end up using Turo anyways as they have the best deals for rental cars in Alaska.