Norton Internet Security 2004. What a nightmare :(

[col_klink]

Am I the only person that finds this program to be a buggy, bloated pile of
trash?

My client has this on 4 different machines (installed by a previous consultant)
and it has failed to work properly on all 4 of them.
The latest incident was this morning where the little globe in the tray had a
red x across it.
Ok I tell the client to open it up and try to re-enable all the stuff that got
turned off.
No good.
Clicking on just about anything in the box either did nothing, or popped up a
message saying "not enough rights to do xxxx" or something similar.

So out to the client's site I go and sure enough the thing seems dead.
I look at the services via msconfig and they all seem to be running.
I can do a Liveupdate however, but nothing else.
I search the Norton site with no luck.
At this point I decide to remove it via control panel and of course get the
"administrator permissions message" even though I AM logged in as such.
Ok, so I go to msconfig and turn off all the services associated with this ball
of confusion and reboot and now I can remove the beast.
However the registry is still chock full of Symantec entries even after a
regclean run.
I spend the next 30 minutes getting rid of that garbage and finally the system
is free from this retarded octopus.

Thinking I am about to get out of there and send my bill, she shows me 3 other
machines with various problems that seem to be related to NIS 2004.

All machines are running Windows XP Professional BTW and as far as I know, she
has a license for each copy of NIS 2004 but I doubt that is the problem anyway
because they all update fine, they just don't work correctly.

The program stops working all by itself clear out of the blue and it's a PITA to
get it running again.

I'm going back there tomorrow to bring the other systems back to life.

I remember Peter Norton when he first started and I even have his book on
Assembly Language, but it's sad to see garbage like NIS2004 being sold as
quality software.

Am I the only one with all of these problems?

My other clients use Sygate and Kaspersky or AVG which seem to work well for
them.

What are others using for strong virus/trojan protection with limited impact on
system resources?

tia

Klink

 

[Dirk]

Am I the only person that finds this program to be a buggy, bloated pile of
trash?

You are pretending to be the expert to your clients so I suggest you solve
it instead to bloat here without any knowledge about the subject

 

[col_klink]

You are pretending to be the expert to your clients so I suggest you solve
it instead to bloat here without any knowledge about the subject

Actually I am an expert, just not with Symantec/Norton products mostly because I
haven't used nor reccomended them in years.
Like I said, this install was done by a previous consultant, not by me.
This is my first dealing with this product and from what I can tell it is a
monster of a resource grabber and does not seem to be stable at all.

So, is it common for this program to hose itself?


klink

 

[Hank]

Actually I am an expert, just not with Symantec/Norton products mostly because I
haven't used nor reccomended them in years.
Like I said, this install was done by a previous consultant, not by me.
This is my first dealing with this product and from what I can tell it is a
monster of a resource grabber and does not seem to be stable at all.

So, is it common for this program to hose itself?


klink

 

[Jeffrey A. Setaro]

Am I the only person that finds this program to be a buggy, bloated pile of
trash?

My client has this on 4 different machines (installed by a previous consultant)
and it has failed to work properly on all 4 of them.
The latest incident was this morning where the little globe in the tray had a
red x across it.
Ok I tell the client to open it up and try to re-enable all the stuff that got
turned off.
No good.
Clicking on just about anything in the box either did nothing, or popped up a
message saying "not enough rights to do xxxx" or something similar.

So out to the client's site I go and sure enough the thing seems dead.
I look at the services via msconfig and they all seem to be running.
I can do a Liveupdate however, but nothing else.
I search the Norton site with no luck.
At this point I decide to remove it via control panel and of course get the
"administrator permissions message" even though I AM logged in as such.
Ok, so I go to msconfig and turn off all the services associated with this ball
of confusion and reboot and now I can remove the beast.
However the registry is still chock full of Symantec entries even after a
regclean run.
I spend the next 30 minutes getting rid of that garbage and finally the system
is free from this retarded octopus.

Thinking I am about to get out of there and send my bill, she shows me 3 other
machines with various problems that seem to be related to NIS 2004.

All machines are running Windows XP Professional BTW and as far as I know, she
has a license for each copy of NIS 2004 but I doubt that is the problem anyway
because they all update fine, they just don't work correctly.

The program stops working all by itself clear out of the blue and it's a PITA to
get it running again.

I'm going back there tomorrow to bring the other systems back to life.

I remember Peter Norton when he first started and I even have his book on
Assembly Language, but it's sad to see garbage like NIS2004 being sold as
quality software.

Am I the only one with all of these problems?

No... What makes you think that NIS is the cause of these problems? What
if any configuration changes where made prior to these problems cropping
up? Did the client install any new software? Patches? Updates?

BTW The are a number of viruses, worms or trojan horse programs that try
to disable or delete anti-virus and/or personal firewall software. Did
you scan any of the effected system with a quality up to date anti-virus
product or did just slash and burn NIS?

My other clients use Sygate and Kaspersky or AVG which seem to work well for
them.

What are others using for strong virus/trojan protection with limited impact on
system resources?

Define "limited impact on system resources". Any properly configured
Windows XP system should be able to run any anti-virus and/or personal
firewall application without noticeable impact.

Personally, I rather fond of F-Secure Anti-virus for Client Security
<http://www.f-secure.com>.

--
Cheers-

Jeff Setaro
jasetaro <at> mags.net
http://people.mags.net/jasetaro/
PGP Key IDs DH/DSS: 0x5D41429D RSA: 0x599D2A99 New RSA: 0xA19EBD34

 

[col_klink]

No... What makes you think that NIS is the cause of these problems? What
if any configuration changes where made prior to these problems cropping
up? Did the client install any new software? Patches? Updates?

The client hasn't installed anything recently except the standard security
updates direct from Microsoft.
At least that is what she is telling me.
The even log doesn't show anything odd.

BTW The are a number of viruses, worms or trojan horse programs that try
to disable or delete anti-virus and/or personal firewall software. Did
you scan any of the effected system with a quality up to date anti-virus
product or did just slash and burn NIS?

Yes I am aware of that.
I have a rescue CDRW that I use along with the latest version of F-Protect to do
a full system scan.
I also do an online scan as well.
In addition I look in the usual places for programs trying to startup.

She came up clean best I can tell, but I am going to keep an eye on the system.

Define "limited impact on system resources". Any properly configured
Windows XP system should be able to run any anti-virus and/or personal
firewall application without noticeable impact.

Her system was running *slow* before I removed the NIS2004. Granted, this
particular install had hosed itself somehow so that may be the reason for the
slowdown.
After it was gone there was a noticeable improvement in navigating, opening
programs and general disk access.
Like I said this may have been due to that particular install beying hosed.

Personally, I rather fond of F-Secure Anti-virus for Client Security
<http://www.f-secure.com>.

Me too.

Thanks for the reply!

klink

 

[Bubba]

Any software product might give you performance issues especially since your
walking in on someone else's installation.
More than likely the PC's were already hosed to begin with when NIS was
installed. With your attitude I doubt you can remain calm long enough to
truly isolate the trouble.

 

[Bubba]

Gee..the most bally-hooed line in all of PC history.

"I haven't changed anything! It just stared doing this" !!!!!!!

 

[col_klink]

Gee..the most bally-hooed line in all of PC history.

"I haven't changed anything! It just stared doing this" !!!!!!!

Yea, I know what you mean!!!!

 

[col_klink]

Any software product might give you performance issues especially since your
walking in on someone else's installation.
More than likely the PC's were already hosed to begin with when NIS was
installed. With your attitude I doubt you can remain calm long enough to
truly isolate the trouble.

Attitude?

I've been doing this for 21 years and trust me I always have my happy face on!
There is no other way to stay in business without it.

Can't say what the state of the systems were because like I said she is a new
client.
However, the usual Adaware/Spybot/Moosoft checks on them showed them to be
remarkablely free of the usual nasties.
Some data mining cookies were found but nothing else was picked up.

Quite unusual for desktop systems that get heavy internet usage.

 

[Hank]

Am I the only person that finds this program to be a buggy, bloated pile of
trash?

My client has this on 4 different machines (installed by a previous consultant)
and it has failed to work properly on all 4 of them.
The latest incident was this morning where the little globe in the tray had a
red x across it.
Ok I tell the client to open it up and try to re-enable all the stuff that got
turned off.
No good.
Clicking on just about anything in the box either did nothing, or popped up a
message saying "not enough rights to do xxxx" or something similar.

So out to the client's site I go and sure enough the thing seems dead.
I look at the services via msconfig and they all seem to be running.
I can do a Liveupdate however, but nothing else.
I search the Norton site with no luck.
At this point I decide to remove it via control panel and of course get the
"administrator permissions message" even though I AM logged in as such.
Ok, so I go to msconfig and turn off all the services associated with this ball
of confusion and reboot and now I can remove the beast.
However the registry is still chock full of Symantec entries even after a
regclean run.
I spend the next 30 minutes getting rid of that garbage and finally the system
is free from this retarded octopus.

Thinking I am about to get out of there and send my bill, she shows me 3 other
machines with various problems that seem to be related to NIS 2004.

All machines are running Windows XP Professional BTW and as far as I know, she
has a license for each copy of NIS 2004 but I doubt that is the problem anyway
because they all update fine, they just don't work correctly.

The program stops working all by itself clear out of the blue and it's a PITA to
get it running again.

I'm going back there tomorrow to bring the other systems back to life.

I remember Peter Norton when he first started and I even have his book on
Assembly Language, but it's sad to see garbage like NIS2004 being sold as
quality software.

Am I the only one with all of these problems?

My other clients use Sygate and Kaspersky or AVG which seem to work well for
them.

What are others using for strong virus/trojan protection with limited impact on
system resources?

tia

Klink

It's a known fact by *most* that NIS 2004 is nothing but a troublesome piece
of shit!

Hank

 

[taff]

I am in total agreement. Norton gets a worse resource hog with each
new version. I have scrapped it and now use AVG with no problems and
my machine runs fine.

Taff.........

Am I the only person that finds this program to be a buggy, bloated pile of
trash?

My client has this on 4 different machines (installed by a previous consultant)
and it has failed to work properly on all 4 of them.
The latest incident was this morning where the little globe in the tray had a
red x across it.
Ok I tell the client to open it up and try to re-enable all the stuff that got
turned off.
No good.
Clicking on just about anything in the box either did nothing, or popped up a
message saying "not enough rights to do xxxx" or something similar.

So out to the client's site I go and sure enough the thing seems dead.
I look at the services via msconfig and they all seem to be running.
I can do a Liveupdate however, but nothing else.
I search the Norton site with no luck.
At this point I decide to remove it via control panel and of course get the
"administrator permissions message" even though I AM logged in as such.
Ok, so I go to msconfig and turn off all the services associated with this ball
of confusion and reboot and now I can remove the beast.
However the registry is still chock full of Symantec entries even after a
regclean run.
I spend the next 30 minutes getting rid of that garbage and finally the system
is free from this retarded octopus.

Thinking I am about to get out of there and send my bill, she shows me 3 other
machines with various problems that seem to be related to NIS 2004.

All machines are running Windows XP Professional BTW and as far as I know, she
has a license for each copy of NIS 2004 but I doubt that is the problem anyway
because they all update fine, they just don't work correctly.

The program stops working all by itself clear out of the blue and it's a PITA to
get it running again.

I'm going back there tomorrow to bring the other systems back to life.

I remember Peter Norton when he first started and I even have his book on
Assembly Language, but it's sad to see garbage like NIS2004 being sold as
quality software.

Am I the only one with all of these problems?

My other clients use Sygate and Kaspersky or AVG which seem to work well for
them.

What are others using for strong virus/trojan protection with limited impact on
system resources?

tia

Klink

www.sounds-pa.com | www.thecomputerworkshop.com

 

[col_klink]

It's a known fact by *most* that NIS 2004 is nothing but a troublesome piece
of shit!

Hank

That's kind of the conclusion that I have reached, albeit based on 4 machines
that I did not have control over prior to signing up this new client.
I'll admit that the literature for NIS 2004 would look appealing to a layperson
serching for a total solutions, one stop shopping source for protection.
I prefer to use the best tool for each particular application instead of a
multipurpose tool.