WARNING: Norton AV2003 may cripple your PC !!

[Shiperton Henethe]

WARNING: Norton AV2003 may cripple your PC !!

I hesitate before writting this, but clearly Symantec
have not listening their customers all day (on this newsgroup).

A number of us have now found that today's patch
(yesterday's?) for Norton Anti-Virus 2003 makes
right-clicking in Windows (e.g. Windows2000, but
also WinXP) massively slow down the speed of
various basic windows functions including
right-clicking (e.g. on the desktop) which
takes 16+ seconds for the menu to appear.

And msExcel suddenly took over 2 minutes to open.
Fearing system melt-down I have now wasted an entire
working day on this problem.
I have not dared to use my emails all day.
I had only just renewed my subscription to Norton
what's worse because it expired just before Xmas.

And I am *NOT* happy.

This level of customer service is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

At the very least Norton should have released a
roll-back patch by now.


I have uninstalled Norton and am now trying
other Anti-virus software.

Sophos has quite a good reputation in the UK. However
keeping it upto date is difficult/confusing.

So I shall now try McAfee. It has no trial version
otherwise I would have tried it before now.
But it is well reviewed at www.pcpro.co.uk


Goodby Norton.

Norton you have shown the lack of accessibility
and lack of responsiveness that cripples the
big corporations and eventually leads to their
downfall. Just look at what happened to the
once indomitable IBM.

"So long and thanks for all the fish"


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Chris Baker]

Ooooh so that's what's killing the loading time on my work's pc. Always
hated Norton. Naturally the guy who recommended it for my pc at work
obviously never has to use it.

 

[LastYJ]

It may not be entirely Symmantec's fault. Please take a look at these pages:

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/08/1849245.shtml?tid=126&tid=128&tid=172&tid=95
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8983896~mode=flat

-lyj

 

[Tom]

Yup, our users are having the exact same problem. It all started with the
liveupdate dated Jan. 7, 2004
By disabling the "Enable Office Plug-in" option you are able to open Office
files normally again. But NAV still runs very, very slow.
So far it appears to only effect NAV 2003.

Symantec must have made a goof with this update. I tried calling them on
their pay-per call line ($30), but the phone lines are max'ed out.
I guess a lot of people are effected. Bummer that you have to pay them $30
to fix their own bug.

-Tom

 

[Tom]

The fix given in the earlier post about certificates fixed it!

 

[Doyce McIlvene]

Hello Shiperton,
If you are serious about trying other antivirus software, take a peek at AVG
from Grisoft.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

It has a very good reputation and does offer a free trial version in
addition to various commercial sever versions if needed at quite a
reasonable price. Also, there is a free version for home personal use.
It is quite easy to install, use, and maintain with updates via the
internet with a click of the mouse or via automatic update. How you
configure it is up to your personal preference.
Give it a look and see what you think.
Cheers,

 

[David H. Lipman]

After updating to the January 7th or 8th virus definitions, your computer slows down and
Microsoft Word and Excel will not start

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2004010810205113

Situation:
This document describes this problem and how to fix it.

Solution:
Symantec is investigating the cause of the problem at this time.

There is a workaround that will fix the problem until Symantec finds a permanent solution.

To use the workaround

1.. Close all programs.
2.. Start Internet Explorer.
3.. Click Tools > Internet Options.
4.. On the Advanced tab, scroll down through the list box to the Security section.
5.. Deselect the "Check for publisher's certificate revocation" option as shown here:

Dave


| Ooooh so that's what's killing the loading time on my work's pc. Always
| hated Norton. Naturally the guy who recommended it for my pc at work
| obviously never has to use it.
|
|
| | > WARNING: Norton AV2003 may cripple your PC !!
| >
| > I hesitate before writting this, but clearly Symantec
| > have not listening their customers all day (on this newsgroup).
| >
| > A number of us have now found that today's patch
| > (yesterday's?) for Norton Anti-Virus 2003 makes
| > right-clicking in Windows (e.g. Windows2000, but
| > also WinXP) massively slow down the speed of
| > various basic windows functions including
| > right-clicking (e.g. on the desktop) which
| > takes 16+ seconds for the menu to appear.
| >
| > And msExcel suddenly took over 2 minutes to open.
| > Fearing system melt-down I have now wasted an entire
| > working day on this problem.
| > I have not dared to use my emails all day.
| > I had only just renewed my subscription to Norton
| > what's worse because it expired just before Xmas.
|
|
|

 

[Bogdan]

WARNING: Norton AV2003 may cripple your PC !!

I hesitate before writting this, but clearly Symantec
have not listening their customers all day (on this newsgroup).

My sentiments exactly. This is a major major screw-up. Even before
this, Norton was causing noticable slowdowns in normal operation. I
too am looking for another AV software.

 

[pshaw]

i'm using nod32 (www.nod32.com) ... apparently has the best track
record of any commercial anti-virus software ...is fast and clean ...

nfi ...i just bought a 3 year certificate ...you can download a trial
version ...

steve

 

[HPO Jury = Malenoid]

My sentiments exactly. This is a major major screw-up. Even before
this, Norton was causing noticable slowdowns in normal operation. I
too am looking for another AV software.

At least LastYJ found this much out:
"A certificate which Verisign used for signing SSL certificates has
expired. When applications which depend on that certificate try to
make an SSL connection, they fail and try to access crl.verisign.com,
the certificate revocation list server. This has effectively DOS'ed
that site.."

For those who don't know, DOS'd means "kicked it off the internet" by
flooding it with requests. Many of those requests came from NAV, Java,
and older IE browsers, according to the site at
http://snipurl.com/slasdotorg .
So I don't see how an expired certificate can be Symantec's fault.
--

"Sensations are merely an awareness of the present
and cannot be retained beyond the immediate moment."
Ayn Rand

"Music is the only phenomenon that permits an adult
to experience the process of dealing with pure sense
data. Single musical tones are not percepts, but
pure sensations; they become percepts only when
integrated."

Ayn Rand

 

[Shiperton Henethe]

Too little too late.

Why couldnt they immediately release a roll-back
patch?

I wasted almost an entire working fighting with my PC
thinking it was dying...

I tried Sophos (which has a good reputation and
offers trialware) but the virus updates were too painful/confusing.

I am now with McAfee - even though the offer no
trialware. And my PC seems to run faster than ever!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Shiperton Henethe]

Thanks. I have now bought a copy of McAfee
depite late of trialware. If they let me down
AVG from Grisoft it shall be!

Ship

 

[Shiperton Henethe]

So I don't see how an expired certificate can be Symantec's fault.

It's their fault for failing to
a) reverse the problem
b) tell us what the problem is fast enough
c) slowing down my PC in normal operation
d) being so difficult to contact directly

Actually I dont care why/how or blame...
I just lost an entire days work fighting
with my PC thinking it was dying.



Ship

 

[Bogdan]

At least LastYJ found this much out:
"A certificate which Verisign used for signing SSL certificates has
expired. When applications which depend on that certificate try to
make an SSL connection, they fail and try to access crl.verisign.com,
the certificate revocation list server. This has effectively DOS'ed
that site.."

For those who don't know, DOS'd means "kicked it off the internet" by
flooding it with requests. Many of those requests came from NAV, Java,
and older IE browsers, according to the site at
http://snipurl.com/slasdotorg .
So I don't see how an expired certificate can be Symantec's fault.

Why is it that NAV needs to verify a certificate, or make a SSL
connection when I right click on a file? What's the purpose? And if a
certificate needs to be verified for sure, how come it works when you
disconnect the internet? How come AV software has been running for
decades before Verisign or SSL even existed? Do I too need a valid
certificate from Verisign when I go to the bathroom? It's lousy
programming if you ask me, and Norton's fault, as well as the fault of
whoever complicates things any more than they should be.

 

[HPO Jury = Malenoid]

It's their fault for failing to
a) reverse the problem
b) tell us what the problem is fast enough
c) slowing down my PC in normal operation
d) being so difficult to contact directly

Actually I dont care why/how or blame...
I just lost an entire days work fighting
with my PC thinking it was dying.

Shit happens. But it wasn't just a problem with Symantec's update, but
with older IE browsers (so blame MS too) and Java. Are you going to
ban them too?
--

"Sensations are merely an awareness of the present
and cannot be retained beyond the immediate moment."
Ayn Rand

"Music is the only phenomenon that permits an adult
to experience the process of dealing with pure sense
data. Single musical tones are not percepts, but
pure sensations; they become percepts only when
integrated."

Ayn Rand

 

[HPO Jury = Malenoid]

Why is it that NAV needs to verify a certificate, or make a SSL
connection when I right click on a file? What's the purpose? And if a
certificate needs to be verified for sure, how come it works when you
disconnect the internet? How come AV software has been running for
decades before Verisign or SSL even existed? Do I too need a valid
certificate from Verisign when I go to the bathroom? It's lousy
programming if you ask me, and Norton's fault, as well as the fault of
whoever complicates things any more than they should be.

If it was Symantec's fault they would have been responsible for fixing
it. But instead, it was Verisign's fault and Verisign who fixed it by
reducing the load on their servers.

But it is all too human to jump to a conclusion and then stick to your
guns in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

--

"Sensations are merely an awareness of the present
and cannot be retained beyond the immediate moment."
Ayn Rand

"Music is the only phenomenon that permits an adult
to experience the process of dealing with pure sense
data. Single musical tones are not percepts, but
pure sensations; they become percepts only when
integrated."

Ayn Rand

 

[Bogdan]

If it was Symantec's fault they would have been responsible for fixing
it. But instead, it was Verisign's fault and Verisign who fixed it by
reducing the load on their servers.

Why is NAV checking Verisign certificates each time I click on a file?
What certificates is it checking? Why isn't other AV software doing
that? ...etc. The immediate cause might be server overloading but the
actual reason, to me, looks like Symantec doing things inefficiently
and stupidly.

 

[Shiperton Henethe]

Shit happens. But it wasn't just a problem with Symantec's update, but
with older IE browsers (so blame MS too) and Java. Are you going to
ban them too?

I would dearly love to ban M$.
But in this case the poor response time
and lack of roll-back is my complaint.

A day without email meant a working day lost.
A day of my time is worth a lot to me.


Ship

 

[Shiperton Henethe]

If it was Symantec's fault they would have been responsible for fixing
it. But instead, it was Verisign's fault and Verisign who fixed it by
reducing the load on their servers.

But it is all too human to jump to a conclusion and then stick to your
guns in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

Please address the right-click question.

Why in God's name does it have to go checking certificates
whenever I simply try to right-click?

The other thing that always did irritate us was the
fact that NAV always insisted in telling you how
clever it had been catching each and every virus.
Fine but dont stop the computer each time.
Damned irritating. And if there *was* an option
to stop it doing so it was too counter-intuitive
for any of us to find. So that makes it pants
either way!

Ship

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

Please address the right-click question.

Why in God's name does it have to go checking certificates
whenever I simply try to right-click?

Hi

For the sake of security...

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2004010810205113

<quote>
For security purposes, Symantec products routinely verify the integrity of
system components and at times were unable to achieve the authentication they
were seeking due to the unavailability of VeriSign's server; therefore,
customers experienced delays and instabilities. Symantec and other vendors are
cooperatively working with VeriSign to mitigate this situation

Solution:
To fix this problem, you must obtain the updated version of Verisign's Root
Certificate Authority (https://getca.verisign.com/).

A full set of instructions is available on this page to walk you through the
installation.
</quote>