Norton Internet Security vs. Symantec AntiVirus Corp

[Michael G. Schneider]

Is the combination of

- Norton Internet Security (without Norton AntiVirus) 2005
- Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v9

not supported? I am having installation problems. Uninstalling one of the
products makes the other not work any longer. Should this combination be
avoided?

Michael G. Schneider

 

[Bill Crocker]

Symantec's Norton products share numerous files, among their applications.
You have to be careful, when uninstalling them, that you do not uninstall
any of the shared components.

I've been a long time user of Norton, but just last night, I gave up on
Norton's Internet Security Suite 2005, and replaced it with Trend Micro's
PC-cillin Internet Security 2005. It's like my computer is on steroids now!

Bill Crocker

 

[Jonah]

I don't know about your problems Michael but if they are similar to
mine I have found a combination that is the most trouble free for my
systems.

I am a "sys adim" not a proper one I am not that good but I am light
years better than the boss so I am it. I run 5 computers on a small
network both local and remote, I have happily used NIS 2003 pro for
the last few years without any trouble.

I decided it was time to upgrade in September 2004 using NIS 2005 and
installed it on my network at home to make sure it was OK before I
afflicted work with it.

BIG MISTAKE

I had endless problems and aggravation on all machines, my network
failed randomly, remote SSH links were useless, FTP would not work,
AV kept switching itself off and the updates kept cycling downloading
the same updates over & over again. Good job I did not stick it
straight on the office network.

I had to re-install from a Ghost Backup Image to get out of these
problems and lost a fortnights work . I have spent the last 3 months
rethinking and experimenting with upgrading various computers and
found that this combination is OK most of the time.

Norton Firewall 2003 + Norton Antivirus 2005 or NSW 2005 but not if
you have a Creative Soundblaster card.

Norton AV 2005 has issues with Creative Audigy Soundcards and in some
cases (so they say) disables itself and gives an error message. If you
have Creative Audigy Soundcards + Error messages and AV Disabled look
at this.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...tiVirus&ver=2005&src=sg&pcode=nav&svy=&csm=no

If you get this problem go for another AV solution.

The fixes listed whilst interesting are pretty useless, they always
end up with an uninstall - re-install which does not work either so
don't bother trying.

I am now using the Firewall 2003 + AV 2005 on non creative soundcard
pooters and Panda AV + Firewall 2003 where I have creative soundcards
installed.

I don't know whats going on with Symantec, I know their products are
not well regarded by experienced net users but they are fine for an
environment where most of the staff cannot be trusted to download e
mail without supervision, Norton has always been easy to use and
effective mostly. It gets worse and more bloated with every upgrade.

I am going to replace everything with a Sophos Business solution this
year and Norton is binned.

 

[optikl]

I don't know whats going on with Symantec, I know their products are
not well regarded by experienced net users but they are fine for an
environment where most of the staff cannot be trusted to download e
mail without supervision, Norton has always been easy to use and
effective mostly. It gets worse and more bloated with every upgrade.

I am going to replace everything with a Sophos Business solution this
year and Norton is binned.

Jonah, maybe you should send a full-text copy of your post to the attention
of John W Thompson at Symantec. John probably doesn't get to see feedback,
particularly direct from experienced, enterprise users. I'm sure he's kept
well insulated from any user problems. Maybe the downward spiral in product
reliability would stop if he had something to look at besides sales figures
and market share data.

 

[Michael G. Schneider]

I don't know about your problems Michael but if they are similar to
mine I have found a combination that is the most trouble free for my
systems.
...

Thank's a lot for your answers.

The combination that was running on my PCs was "NIS 2004 (without AntiVirus)
and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate 9". There were no problems in the past.

However, then I wanted to upgrade to NIS 2005. First I wanted to de-install
NIS 2004. Then there were problems. Obviously de-installing NIS 2004 also
partly destroys a running AntiVirus Corporate. It did no longer start and
reported missing components. There are shared components and de-installing
one product does not realize that another product is still on the PC. From
then on that PC was in a rather bad state.

I then installed NIS 2005 on a clean PC. There I realized that NIS 2005 does
no longer offer the possibility to exclude the AntiVirus installation.
AntiVirus is installed by default and there is no obvious way for avoiding
this.

As there is no possibility for NIS 2005 with AntiVirus Corporate, I got rid
of AntiVirus Corporate and am currently using NIS 2005 with all components.
This does work.

Michael G. Schneider

 

[Jonah]

Tried that, numerous complaints to Symantec received Uninstall -
Re-Install replys. I gave up I think they must have automailers
sending variations on a theme to all complaints.

Could not get my money back either (cos I activated it FFS)

Symantec can't be arsed to write decent there are plenty more security
providers who can and won't be going bust in a few years.

Shame really?

 

[Jonah]

Thank's a lot for your answers.

The combination that was running on my PCs was "NIS 2004 (without AntiVirus)
and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate 9". There were no problems in the past.

However, then I wanted to upgrade to NIS 2005. First I wanted to de-install
NIS 2004. Then there were problems. Obviously de-installing NIS 2004 also
partly destroys a running AntiVirus Corporate. It did no longer start and
reported missing components. There are shared components and de-installing
one product does not realize that another product is still on the PC. From
then on that PC was in a rather bad state.

Seems like you had the same wonderful and enlightening experience I
did with NIS 2005

I then installed NIS 2005 on a clean PC. There I realized that NIS 2005 does
no longer offer the possibility to exclude the AntiVirus installation.
AntiVirus is installed by default and there is no obvious way for avoiding
this.

I used a Ghost backup (ironically) to get rid of NIS 2005 so I got
back to NSW 2003 & Norton Firewall 2003 by passing the uninstall
nightmares. I then got hold of a copy of NSW 2005, uninstalled NSW
2003 leaving the firewall installed and put NSW 2005 back in without
the bloatware.

I found when I put NIS 2005 in originally it was the firewall element
causing most of my problems.

As there is no possibility for NIS 2005 with AntiVirus Corporate, I got rid
of AntiVirus Corporate and am currently using NIS 2005 with all components.
This does work.

Glad you fixed it, have a look at Sophos stuff, its expensive but its
the dogs reputedly.



Jonah

 

[Juan C. Reyes]

I've learned the hard way that NIS2005 is a terrible product. Very
disappointed, given I had been a fan of their prior versions.

In order to correct all issues this product created on my system, I will be
reformatting and reinstalling everything except NIS2005. I'm just deciding
on a different product at this point.

Juan
| Is the combination of
|
| - Norton Internet Security (without Norton AntiVirus) 2005
| - Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v9
|
| not supported? I am having installation problems. Uninstalling one of the
| products makes the other not work any longer. Should this combination be
| avoided?
|
| Michael G. Schneider
|
|