Norton Internet Security 2006 - don't buy it!

[EC8010]

I wasted six hours yesterday fighting Norton. NIS came up for renewal, and as it periodically loaded complaining that "ordinal 21 not found" and generated a 20MB .dmp file every time it was booted, I thought I'd install NIS 2006. I duly handed over the (price-fixed) £49.99 and attempted to install. It asked for the product code, started chundering away, told me to delete Spybot (which I did) then after about ten minutes or so said "installation failed" and gave me a link to go to along with "error 9999.171". The link detailed how to enable event logging. I followed the instructions, but it still didn't work (event logging was already on). The next step up was an auto-fix that required using IE6 to download some programs that would delete all Symantec products. I enabled IE6 and tried it. It didn't help. The final solution suggested was a manual download of the uninstall files. I tried that, and they seemed to work better. I also deleted Ewido just in case that was the problem. All the time, it was clearly storing the Norton product code because it never asked for it again. Each time, it did a preliminary scan and when I opened the report it said that it was "unable to ensure access to":

MACHINE\Software\Symantec\Norton Antivirus
MACHINE\Software\Symantec\Installed Apps
MACHINE\Software\Symantec\Common Client
MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

Of course, from the moment I deleted all Norton products and used their online "help", my computer was exposed to attack. I pulled the plug on my Internet connection whenever possible to minimise the risk, but it was still unnerving.

I tried telephoning Norton to talk to a real person as well. Their UK "customer care centre" starts out with a very long recorded message (running up your telephone bill), and when it has bored you to tears with that, it redirects you to a call centre in India staffed by people who are terribly polite but no use whatsoever. They just read from a script like automatons. Not their personal fault, I doubt if a UK call centre speaking in Urdu would do any better. It's Symantec's fault for trying to save money.

Eventually, I gave up and re-installed NIS 2004. It took a lot of updates and false starts, but eventually it worked.

I mentioned my woes to a friend who does IT for a living, and he said that he'd heard bad reports of NIS2006. I contacted another friend, and he said he'd had exactly the same problem that I had.

Moral: Don't buy NIS2006.

[richie00boy]

Moral: don't pay for internet security full stop

avast! Home Edition
Zonealarm Free
Firefox browser
Thunderbird email and newsreader

Works for me Last time I used a Norton product, my machine appeared to have been attending the Anne Diamond school of bloatedness.

And while were on the subject of bloatedness, ditch Adobe PDF Reader and put on Foxit Reader and you will never go back

[Wynand]

My boss said that he used norton anti-virus, and that he'll never use it again because it wasted a lot of recources.

I personally use AVG-free and spy-bot 1.4 for my home pc. No problems so far.

[Geek]

There's also Bit Dfender and F-protect for freebies.

Another problem with mainstream AV is every worm/virus/trojan is written specifically to defeat them.

[Christer]

The only antivirur program I have used that didn't work well and that couldn't download updates was the only one I had paid for. Since then I only use freeware ones. Previously Antivir, now Avast.

As for firewalls, I previously used Zone Alarm, but is now trying Jetico. It was found the safest in test. The problem is that it is so safe that you can hardly do anything without getting a lot of questions, and for everything it asks, it will ask once again when you have rebooted. Not sure I will have enough patience with it, even if it is secire.

[EC8010]

Wow! What a fast response!

Originally posted by Wynand
My boss said that he used Norton anti-virus, and that he'll never use it again because it wasted a lot of recources.

At the point when I had deleted Norton, I happened to glance at the task manager and memory usage. With Norton installed, memory usage usually trundles along at the 250Mb level. With Norton removed, it dropped to 120Mb.

I suspect Geek has nailed it for me:

Another problem with mainstream AV is every worm/virus/trojan is written specifically to defeat them.

Now, if Norton had made their product just a tiny bit better, they could have continued to charge me for protection. I think they've just lost it.

[ssmith]

Originally posted by richie00boy
Moral: don't pay for internet security full stop

avast! Home Edition
Zonealarm Free
Firefox browser
Thunderbird email and newsreader

Excellent advice. I also once used Norton. It's a system resource hog.
I've been using Avast! for the past 2 years or so. It is FANTASTIC. I cannot fault it at all.

I compliment that with Spybot S&D, ZoneAlarm, Spyware Blaster, and Adaware SE. Like Avast, all are FREE (for personal use at least).

In the office I have Norton corporate edition. Less of a resource hog, but I get infected alot.

Originally posted by Christer
As for firewalls, I previously used Zone Alarm, but is now trying Jetico. It was found the safest in test. The problem is that it is so safe that you can hardly do anything without getting a lot of questions, and for everything it asks, it will ask once again when you have rebooted. Not sure I will have enough patience with it, even if it is secire.

Thanks for the tip. I will try that one, even though I'm generally satisfied with Zone Alarm.

[Christer]

Originally posted by ssmith


Thanks for the tip. I will try that one, even though I'm generally satisfied with Zone Alarm.

OR maybe you shouldn't, at least not without reading this thread
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...hlight=svchost
so you get some help getting started.

I tried Jetico twice, and gave up within one or two hours. Then I found that thread and started to understand a bit more. I decided to give it a third and final try, and after a lot of experimenting I started to grasp it well enough to use it. However, it still drives me mad sometimes, since it is much more cautious than any other firewall, and ask a lot more about what to let through or not. Don't be surprised if it doesn't let you run an ordinary windows application without asking for permission. Some programs use ports even though they don't access the internet.

On the other hand? I tried kerio sunbelt that many people like a lot, but ther I got asked whether to let traffic through without always being told what program or process was asking for permission. How secure is that?

[bulgin]

Hi EC8010

I am still angry/upset/unnerved at my own troubles with this stuff. It is still on my computer and I still have around 160 days left on the current version. If you can imagine a vinyl record stuck in a groove for a couple of hours - that's how many red warning panes (which freaks me every time I see them!) I had these last few months. I know all about their Indian call centre and also went the costly person-to person route, without success. All very polite 'n all that but it didn't help me in the least.

Eventually, I managed to exchanged mails with a sweet lady somewhere in the cyber void who suggested to uninstall the stuff and re-load. Again at the cost of dial-up time. I shouldn't write this (touch wood), but this is my first week after 7 months without troubles.

While perhaps on a related subject, the ast few days (since Monday this week), I bought a Proline X series UPS which comes with easy to install software which gives you an impressive pane with meters and ac quality indicators, temperature hz readings and whatnot.

I charged the thing overnight and while this was being done, read the simple handbook and installed the software without incident. Yesterday morning, I carefully first switched the mains off, and installed the UPS.

Everything looked normal and I was rather impressed with my 'powerstation' pane.

Later yesterday, I wanted to use the computer again and this time, a white pane covered the entire screen - UPS disconnected.

I checked all plugins and asked the supplier for assistance, who was quite useless. Late yesterday, I called another branch of the suppliers who informed me that the problem was known to them and incurable and the remedy was to exchange the equipment. This was done late yesterday. I again put the replacement UPS on charge and decided to uninstall the old software. NOTHING AT ALL WORKED, whatever I tried to uninstall, and the white 'disconnected pane' was still there. I tried the replacement disc and got an 'ACCESS DENIED' notice.

I sent at 4am this morning an email, explaining the situation and asked the supplier to call me urgently. I also posted the details on their 'feedback' site.

I called them this morning but they were completely unaware of my mail or the problem.

In the end, it took a person to person confrontation with my computer in their store before they stirred themselves to fix things.

It is now about 1 hour connected to their UPS and all seems OK.

What is it with people like this who ignore customers' problems?

The name of the smartlooking outfit BTW is Chaos Computers...
This alone should have been enough warning.

Cheers all

bulgin

[Christer]

"computer" and "support" are two words that cannot be used in the same sentence without lying.