The simplest thing to do would be to download a browser that you don't currently have installed (Firefox would really fit the bill here) and try to connect.
If you can't connect through a fresh browser, then go straight to Malwarebytes, download free version, run free version.
2 of the browsers were newly downloaded ones. My brother already put Malwarebytes on there for her the day after FR stopped loading.
I agree with your recommendations, except for an unforeseen occurrence that happened to me. I had been a longterm user of Malwarebytes free version, and was actually considering the premium (paid) version. Anyway, I noticed that my free version was absent, so I tried to reload it. I went to their site, and requested an update, which is all I wanted, however, somehow the process got carried away, and I wound up with a (free) trial version of the premium. That’s when the problem started- My computer slowed down to a crawl. Things were running at maybe one quarter speed or less. That immediately convinced me that I didn’t really want the premium version, and the whole process started to become somewhat familiar, seems like I have been there before and done that. All of which brings up a question on my part- is anyone else familiar with this?