My Norton is driving me nuts

April 14, 2005 | pbrown

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I've had to uninstall and then reinstall my Norton Internet Security 2004, a total of four times in the last two weeks. I am at my wits end, which for me, isn't too far a journey. Any help on what could possibly be wrong would be greatly appreciated.

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Some internet server providers (browser??)are not compatible with Norton and or McVee. I had to disable certain safety functions within my firewall (McVee) before I could navigate on the web. Possibly the identity protection function may have to be disabled before you can navigate the web. It has worked fine for me until the last couple of weeks. It's been going crazy. I wonder if it knows it's about to expire and this is it's way of making me purchase another one sooner than July.

When it gets to the point that I think Norton has an embedded, hidden program in itself...

[2nd amendment mama]

AVG is what use and I recommend it to all of my customers.

[nikos1121]

Hey, if we can see out, through our computers, they can see in. It's a matter of time until we will be living in an Orwellian State. I mean that is the only fool proof way to guard against terrorism, you know what everyone on the planet is doing. And computers will be monitoring you.

Orwell and Huxley saw this over 60 years ago... and people still don't see that.

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Did you just install SP2 for XP? Known problems with some Symantec products.

No, I didn't. I just have Windows XP.

[Hardastarboard]

I thought you were complaining about a sweet handling but somewhat under powered British motorcycyle with a cult following.

[Eagle9]

Oh, sorry. Thought you had a commando.

That was the first thought to cross my mind too. I bought one in the Spring of my senior year in high school, 1970. It was a very fast bike, which was only made for two years, 1969 & 70, and only came in red or blue metal flake. All the motorcycle magazines had tested it at 12.6 seconds in the ¼ mile, and were mystified by it being called scrambler, just because of the "S" designation by Norton. It was built for speed and could really shock owners of muscle cars of that era, when it came to street racing. The photos that I have are not clear enough (Kodak Instamatic) but I found a pic of one on the Internet exactly like the one I had.

Norton Commando 750 "S"

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/thebikers/museum/index.htm

[Mr. Lucky]

Jeez, the title had me hoping this was a British motorcycle thread. (those Nortons will literally "drive" you nuts)

[Old Professer]

Norton and Triumph are names of English companies that made motorcycles that were exported here; just showing my age.

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I believe my Live Update runs in the background all the time too That isn't the liveupdate I meant. The one I was talking about is the one where when you reinstall your Norton, it has to download whatever it has to download. When it's finished, the little thing at the bottom of my computer will turn orange, noting that it is ready for me to hit the finish button. If I do that, this computer will automatically shut down and restart. I'll just let it glow orange at me for awhile.

[monkapotamus]

I had a bizarre experience last year. Suddenly my AOL dial-up stopped being able to make a connection (I use AOL for emergencies when DSL is down.) It started working again however when I un-installed Norton Anti-virius. I tried again to make sure - re-installing Norton, then AOL 9.0 could not make a connection again. I tested this multiple times. This was a total pain and at first I assumed the problem was the XP service pack, but it wasn't.

I switched to McAfee Anti-virus which AOL provides for its users now for free and everything works great.

[Proud_texan]

Yeah, uninstallers for uninstallers. Several AV/security programs that come bundled are that way. I'm sure it couldn't be that when they are up for renewal it's so #$^& hard to get rid of them that in many cases I've had to take the box down to the bare metal and reinstall Windows. This applies to several of the larger AV/security suites.

But as noted there are a number of excellent alternatives most of which are very friendly to removal.

Haven't read all the messages yet and don't know if it's been mentioned but I'm currently evaluating Panda. It's not what I'm currently using on my production box (alas, it's the best AV program I've ever used but they discontinued it but haven't discontinued updates....yet). I was somewhat impressed with Panda's combo AV and anti-Spyware feature at least off the get go.

Again, haven't finished running it through it's paces, your mileage may vary.

[CyberAnt]

I've noticed several people hgave mentioned the firewall. I don't use the firewall in Norton - I have Road Runner cable service and they provide me with a firewall. They recommended that I not try to use both because the software products clash.

You might want to check with your ISP and find out what products they are using to protect you. And .. you might want to ask them if their system might be having a problem with Norton.

I also do a weekly clean-up of my system. First thing I do is run Disc Cleanup. After that program runs - I use Spybot and I have it check for junk on my systems. In one week - it ususally finds 12-18 files on my system that need to be deleted. The files are usually to track where you're going and where you're spending your money. They don't hurt your system - but they will slow down your system.

Then I run Ad-Aware. This program finds all those files which have been planted by other in your system as you are innocently surfing the net. What most of these do is send you continuous email about a select product - usually something you have recently purchased.

After running those 3 programs - I run defrag.

I am always amazed at how much faster my system runs after taking maybe less than 30 minutes to keep it cleaned up. Just a thought.

[MineralMan]

My Norton rarely gives me trouble. It always starts on the second kick when it's cold, and on the first when it's warm. Nortons are cool!

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I've used AVG for years, but lately I've learned that the folks in the know prefer Avast or AntiVir, both of which are also freeware antivirus programs. AntiVir seems to have the edge. I just replaced AVG with it on one virus-ridden pc, like it so far, haven't put it on the others just yet.

I'll write them on my list, thanks. Full System Scans, show I have no viruses. Now that I've said it, I'll probably be getting them by the truck load. Let me knock on wood real fast. Done.

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It always runs alot when you first buy and install....needs to update everything it doesn't have since it was packed.

If you're talking about anti-spyware, I wish I had know that. I thought something was wrong with them so I uninstalled 'em. Ohhhh

[kallisti]

Thanks for the memory stimulation, great bike.

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while norton is without doubt the best virus program it does have some serious bugs with installing and uninstalling. i recommend to my customers to install ONLY the anti-virus and leave internet security and systemworks alone. XP SP2 gives you a software firewall and if you are using a router that is more the sufficent for 95% of internet users. if norton has hosed your system you may need to track-down and delete all "hidden" temporary files and delete every reference to symantec and norton in your system registry as well as all norton and symantec folders on your computer before re-installing just the anti-virus.

Thanks. I printed what you posted. I tried deleting files, it wouldn't let me. It said these files are need for other programs to work...something like that. I don't remember it verbatim.

[Feckless]

Electrics by Lucas, the man who invented darkness. :-)

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Drop Norton, get AVG.

I'm not gonna buy another in July. I just want to turn this computer on and come to FR. I don't want the hassel of Norton tell me to disconnect from the Internet for security reasons.

[BubbaBobTX]

My guess would be that you have not downloaded Service Pack 2 from Microsoft. If you do Norton will be disabled.