Norton is the devil's spawn.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

I didn't hate Norton before this caller today. I do now.

I hate it with a passion.

*head explodes*

Comments

And it took you this long to figure that out

[jeffreycornish.livejournal.com]

Symantec makes fine fine products. If they didn't have to do anything ubercritical or highly invasive, I would be happy with them.

but after the nth '0x800ccc0e-no-our-mail-server-hasn't-died' question in a day, you have to wonder how much they are spending on testing....

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[normal1.livejournal.com]

totally agree - I think they've gotten to big and now have that "okay-lets-move-on-to-other-markets" mindset - sad. Everyone wants a piece of the pie

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[klyf23.livejournal.com]

I decided to not use their products after looking for an answer in the knowledge base (the live update kept borking and NAV insisted that it had been "tampered with") and found something that when boiled down, basically said:

"Yeah, it'll do that. We don't know why."

And their useful phone support:

ME: Is there a better alternative to uninstalling/reinstalling, I'm having to do that once a week, and it's getting old.

SYMANTEC TS: Uhhhhh, have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

ME: {after a few moments of disbelief} Er, thank you for your time...*click*

I then proceeeded to download Kaspersky, which works jus' fine.

[As long as you're not using Eudora. Eudora gets all sorts of broken, because KAV temporarily locks down the inbox file when there's an virus. Eudora can't cope with this. Screw Eudora anyways, it hasn't been the same since QualComm got ahold of it, IMHO, YMMV.]

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[compwizrd.livejournal.com]

NAV used to do the same thing.. it'll find a virus in the Inbox while downloading mail.

and quarantine the "Inbox" file.. and then netscape would continue on with a brand new file. but the emails wouldn't show as being gone... so the end user goes looking for an old email and it's not there.

Symantec said this is by design, and to turn off scanning on the users mail directory from the NAV:CE console.

With 100+ users and mozilla picking random names for profile names... sure, sure.

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

AV software that sounds like it was written by communists <3

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[klyf23.livejournal.com]

Hey, when all the capitalists give me is crap (MacAfee/Symantec/Panda), I have no problem spending my money elsewhere!

(Actually, I bought it after doing some research on the web, looking at sites that compared the effectiveness of various AV programs.)

Re: And it took you this long to figure that out

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

You know it's funny. My family has this old 700mhz computer with an Intel Celeron in it. They used to have ME on it, until I put another stick of RAM in it, and installed Windows XP on it. They also have Norton Internet Security 2002. They haven't had one problem with it since. I did have to re-register live update files one day, because it wouldn't live update...but other than that...they've been fine. It could be different factors though. It's an older version...2002 and maybe their new s*it is just crap. My family only uses web based mail accounts like yahoo and g-mail...so they don't have to use OE. Like I said, it works for them...but there are X factors.

[raina.livejournal.com]

I learned this my first day of support way back in 2000. i remember saying WTF? this isnt a mindspring mail server. then being schooled. you would think after years of this issue it would be tested to the point of Working.

Welcome to the club.

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

Here's your bumper sticker and copy of AVG Free Edition.

Re: Welcome to the club.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

..But not the new version...

Re: Welcome to the club.

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

7.0 Free is giving you problems?

Re: Welcome to the club.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Yea. It used to be great, but when they started getting into the firewall thing as well, problems started cropping up.

I still recommend it, but I'm hearing calls with problems for the first time.

Re: Welcome to the club.

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

how's it a firewall? It proxies POP and SMTP, but that works for me. In fact, it can do SSL/TLS for all POP and SMTP traffic even if your e-mail app ro checker doesn't support it.

Re: Welcome to the club.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I've been off the phone for a couple months so it's not all clear in my memory anymore, but I half-remembered it having a firewall component now. I might have mixed that up with something else, though.

I do know that people started calling in with AVG trouble, which up to that point had never happened before.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

I should probably go into more detail on why I hate it so much.

Cust: "I can't sign on the internet."
me: *thinking* so much info to work with.

So we start with the modem, modem is online, computer has valid ip address, but not able to ping out to ip's or domains.

Started off by booting into safe mode w/networking. IE opens page just fine.

Reboot system, still no internet. Clearly a firewall.

me: Any firewall software?
Cust: "I have norton, is that it?"
me: "Yes it is. Ok, well let's disable that."

Right clicks in the system tray, mrs can't seem to find where it says disable, but sees where it says allow incoming traffic.

me: "ok, let's allow incoming traffic."
Cust: "ok"
me: "Now that has been allowed, let's thy the internet again."
Cust: Nope, still nothing.

So I have her right click on it again. This time she finds the disable option.
me: *headdesk*
cust: So I click disable right?
me: *facepalm* "Yes."

So we think we have it disabled right? Not hardly.

Norton decides to popup.

cust: "Are you sure you want to disable?"
me: "yes"
Cust: "How long do you want it off."
me: *thinks* this norton is being a pain in the ass "Um, 15 minutes."
Cust: "Are you sure?"
me: *god damn it yes!* "Yes."
Cust: "Norton says your vulnerable to viruses and hackers if we do so. To re-enable norton...etc.
*god, I can't get away from this crap*

After two more screens asking about norton, and what will happen if you disable norton (scare tactic) it finally leaves me the hell alone.

The connection now works.

Cust: "So you do think it was my norton?"
me: "I know it was for a fact it was your norton. Let me give you their support number."

Now you know why my head exploded.

[110billion.livejournal.com]

Ha. I had Norton AntiVirus for ages. It worked fine. Now I use AntiVir, which is a pain, because there's no realtime scanning, but it will last me until I next format this copy of XP, because it is sucking some severe wang.

- 4 applications open
- mozilla, mozilla thunderbird, winamp, MSN messenger
- 90MB more RAM being since startup (12 mins ago) used
- I call bullshit

[methedras.livejournal.com]

Norton is a complete and utter pile. Whenever new updates come out, we used to get hundreds of calls back in to my old call centre because now they couldn't get their email... uninstall Norton... oh look, it's working fine.

Piece. Of. Shit.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Their Speedisk rules tho', as does the corp version of their antivirus. It's a bloody joke that I have to get a cd full of absolute and utterly pointless shite to get that one app. But then, if they sold speedisk on its own, no one would ever buy any of the other crap.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

gotta love their new subscription model too. check out ed's gripe line for more info