You're talking to a layman - as far as I'm concerned the browser is a program on my computer and please do correct me as I'm most probably wrong. As for anti virus being imperfect I believe I agreed that point in the beginning and have elaborated that I feel that the level of cover I have should be enough to deal with this problem at some point. This could be either proactive or reactive and that I shouldn't then have to approach third party downloads to deal with it. For all I know I could end up putting something worse on my computer.
Norton's own advice did not resolve the issue and while I thank everyone for their advice, which I shall be taking, I believe that such actions should not be necessary.
Remember that no antivirus is perfect. I see this kind of stuff everyday with users having Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, AVG, Avast, Avira, Bitdefebder and more. The reason your scans cane up clean was cause your PC isn’t infected. Your browser is. That is why there is special tools. Be careful what you Google. Sometimes you can Google something which actually makes you download a virus.
Also 99% of viruses, malware and adware are self inflicted wounds. So try to remember what you last did and avoid that.
I'll try all of these until something works.
I use the terms virus and malware as this is what everyone else refers to them as when I tried researching the problem. Apologies if my terminology is incorrect as I'm a gardener and there seems to be a lot of ambiguity surrounding this issue.
Thanks everyone for you help and I look forward to trying the potential solutions you have given me.
I'll give this a whirl as well, thanks.
My main point though is after finding this in the Norton help after a google search it leads me to understand that the cover I have is sufficient to deal with the problem post infection. After trying eraser and deep scans and more than was recommended the problem still persists.
A redirect is not a virus or malware. It is usually caused by adware that came from something you downloaded or installed. Try Internet Explorer or Edge browser if you are on Windows 10. Please download and install MalwareBytes AdwCleaner. Norton protects your PC and not necessarily your browser. What did you last do or install? Infections do not happen on their own. https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
I use adblock plus but it doesn't seem to bother the virus but is still active in most cases. I will try the reset feature.
Please download Zemana Antimalware Portable and run a scan
https://zemana.com/en-US/Download
Firefox has a reset feature. Have you tried that? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-preferences-fix-problems?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Resetting+preferences
Also you should be using an ad blocker. Add uBlock Origin to your Firefox extensions.
Sure I appreciate that and thanks for getting back to me.
I use FireFox and have not tested the issue in any other browser as I don't really use any others.
I click on any link and it'll either take me where I want or redirect me to another site. It also opens new windows occasionally rather than redirecting the current page. It's rather tedious but some of the sites are not what I want my kids seeing while others are harmless adverts. Still not great and concerns me that most forums suggest it's malware that has sneaked through.
Can you please elaborate on exactly what is going on? So your browser is being redirected when you perform a search? Keep in mind that no antivirus is 100% effective. A redirect is a browser thing and not a pc problem, It can easily be fixed if you explain to me which browser this is happening on a how it is happening. Thanks.