Norton Internet Security (Anti-virus) POS?

Judas · Mar 20, 2007, 05:56 PM

Ok, give me a second to explain....

IS norton internet secuirty (anti-virus) a complete royally useless hunk of crap in the world, in both actually doing it's job, AND being user friendly?

And i'm not soloing out norton, this also goes for mcfee which has just as much issues.

It's all fine and dandy when you've got a connection directly to the internet, but when it comes down to sharing printers/files/VPNs for that matter, then all hell breaks loose, and then the shat hits the fan.

Seriously, In a a world where it's not so much the internet that you have to worry about, being behind a router, and HAVING to share files and make a typical user happy with easy setup/file sharing. Where the hell does norton even start? (i can't seem to find anything FRIENDLY at all about norton).

Worst off all, while norton won't help at all through tech support about anything, and cant get printers/files to share, somehow the machine still ended up with a virus down the road that norton still doesn't detect. I've since removed the virus, and i'm currently uninstalling norton suite from the machine (i've done about 10 norton uninstalls, no wonder i'm not selling norton at all). And i'm proceeding to install AVG which had caught the virus... and it's just the freaking free version.

Can't access what you want, but get loaded with what you don't want..... sounds like a working system hey?

Anyways, enough of the relentless ranting.

Do you feel norton is a big freaking waist of time/money and hair? Is it friendly even at all? Do you really like it?

PangingJr · Mar 21, 2007, 12:19 AM

i don't have any interest any more on checking out antivirus and firewall that's made available by Norton (or Symantec), or released under this name.
the only software program under the name that continue to interest me is the Ghost's DOS based tool. as of now, i'm still a true-believer in this DOS tool only.

however, since you still wanting to try it out, have you checked all available settings in the program yet? it may be configurable.

Dyre Straits · Mar 21, 2007, 01:24 AM

I haven't used anything with Norton in the name since the days of Windows 95. And then I had to reformat a HD and reinstall Windows due to so many problems.

But, Comcast (my ISP) provides McAfee for free and I've been using McAfee for years, actually. I've had very, very few issues and those have been remedied without too much of a hassle. So, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with McAfee.

We have over 5 computers on the network, sharing printers, files, etc, and they all get along fine.

But, if McAfee gave me as much of a problem...or even anywhere near as much....as Norton did, I'd get rid of it, too.

We do, afterall, have a hardware firewall in the routers we use and, I've learned pretty well which emails not to open as well as which websites to stay away from.

Judas · Mar 21, 2007, 11:47 AM

Well mcafee hasn't caused a WHOLE lot of problems in terms of networking, i just know that in one case, i had similare issues as i did with norton, hell a uninstall and reinstall didn't resolve the problem.

I've had norton so royally screw up a machine after installing, that a full format had to be done to resolve all the errors and overall system crashes that it had caused.

But people have actually brought in thier computer to me, to JUST remove norton, and out of the machines, i think i've had 3 that the norton uninstaller failed to work.

Frankly i'm not a fan of any anti-virus software, reason i still don't use any at all. Doesn't seem to matter which is installed, it always seems to oventually cause havoc somewhere down the line.

Out of them all, i find AVG to be the simpliest and most manageable of them all.

PangingJr · Mar 21, 2007, 01:21 PM

hmm do you have a choice? can you tell your customer that you cannot service since you don't know how to use the software installed on their system?
cause if you can't or don't want to tell them that, i guess you need to learn how to install, uninstall, use and configure the software properly.
i used to see Symantec had many online resources, troubleshooting info and tools to help you remove their installed software from your system.

Judas · Mar 21, 2007, 01:48 PM

I've gone through symantecs site and used there tools.. it's just the number of machines that people have tried to uninstall the software themselves, following all the rules, and norton somehow messed up and i have to try and clean it up.. oventually solveing the problem.

But quite often, it appears that norton is a glitchfest... One issue after another.

Hell one machine that someone had bought norton, installed it, and when it asked to reboot, the machine didn't startup, suddenly the master boot record or the boot information had been completely corrupted.. so i fixed it, got windows to start booting, then got a BSOD...

don't get me wrong, when norton works, it appears to work without issue, but if so much as one little thing appears to go wrong, everything goes to hell.

When i'm completely unfamilare with the software they are using, i inform them of that. Example is quickbooks, while i know how to use the basic operation of it, and i've read up on it, some things i suggest to the cusomter to phone quickbooks tech support about.

But that's the thing, when you phone up norton and start asking the questions that even they can't explain or resolve.... i've gotten hung up on once cause they didn't want to deal with the issue.

technonerd · Mar 21, 2007, 03:27 PM

Honesty, I think Norton Security is a piece of garbage like McAfee as well. YOU may not have any problem with it at all but what about others? You MAY have experiance using the program but not to some mindless customers.

I have fix those program many times for customers and it does cause alots of conflict with computer depend of how you use it. Many complains why email is not working, internet not work, why I can't access to some website, why computer is slowing down, remove NAV and now internet not working ARGH. Basically you just need to know how to use it properly but sometimes it'll still give you conflicts.

The worst part is that the Sales Person gives recomendation for NAV (Stupid company policy) and makes me install it *shudder*. Two weeks later the customer complains about NAV giving too much errors and computer is slowing down. I HAD to call them that the NAV is giving too much problem, because there's a virus/spyware that is effecting it and then I get yelled at why didn't NAV prevent it *pointing figure at cusomter's back* and *showing fist at sale person and boss*

Know what bothers me the most, WHY THE HELL some customer installed THREE antivirus!!!! On monday a customer told me that he installed NAV 2007 and suddenly the WinXp won't boot anymore. So I had to go to safe mode and find out whats wrong, turned out he had 3 antivirus *roll eyes*

For me I only used Kaspersky, Windows firewall, Rounter firewall and my Brain (whether you know it's safe to go to a website, like not going to free porn site or pay site at all >.< ).

Judas · Mar 21, 2007, 05:43 PM

exactly technonerd..

while in some cases, multiple anti-virus isn't a huge issue.... it can cause some.... and the more you install the do the same task, the worse it can get... not to mention that some cases result in both anti-virus detecting each other as a virus and running around in a continuess loop conflict.

While i still hear excellent things about Norton Anti-virus corporate eddtion, no one wants to spend that much.

Dyre Straits · Mar 21, 2007, 08:52 PM

So, we're mainly talking about people who know nothing or very little about computers (that's a HUGE number, btw) who are doing things that shouldn't be done. They're over their heads and following so many different people's advice it's scary.

AND, if this is the case, it's NOT the programs causing the problem, it's the ignorance of people who don't know how to use them properly.

I find myself having to be a teacher almost more than a technician when dealing with a large number of issues with other people's computers.

At the same time, I really abhor Norton products because they seem to want to take over control of the whole system. I don't find that to be the problem with McAfee products.

GutterPunk · Mar 21, 2007, 10:34 PM

I have used no firewall, or AV for about 3-4 years now on my main machine. On my other machine I only run Nod32.

Coprorate Edition of NAV is great imo. For the longest time I have used 2k3 on server machines. We have so many freakin problems with customers and NAV. We remove it, put on comodo, and AVG and they call back offering to send us cookies, brownies, gift cards and what not because they are so much happier with the system performance.

Judas · Mar 22, 2007, 11:27 AM

While sure alot of customers don't know what they are doing, i'm fairly confident, (and i've watched as well) them install norton 2007 on one machine they had recently purchased from dell. (they had brought it in to ask my opinion of it, which is slightly amusing

). But they bought norton 2007 from me, he popped it in, everything was going great with the install, followed all the directions to a tee, and apon reboot, shit broke lose and since then, he's done a full dell system wipe and restore of the OS and doesn't want to use 2007. (course he had the nads to ask if he could return the product to me, but unfortuneatly he had activated it).

Yes, i beleive alot of the issues could be cropped up to being what the user has done, but when you get a new machine, fresh, working flawlessly for days without issues, and within 5 minutes, it drops down to being as useless as a paperweight, that's cause for concern. Theres no WAY that coulda been a user created issue. I was right there, i seriously couldn't beleive it.

Anyone i've setup with AVG is still happy as hell though, specially the machines i've removed norton from and installed AVG. They make it a huge note to make sure i'm aware that they are quite happy with the result, plus mention several times that the overall system seems to be performing/starting up/shutting down several times faster.

MrSpock2002 · Mar 22, 2007, 01:00 PM

God I hate that program. It DEVOURERS system resources. I use plain and simple Symantec Antivirus Corp 10. Extremely low system usage. And much better virus protection.

PangingJr · Mar 22, 2007, 11:40 PM

so this is a general complaining about the software products. i however think you need to manage to think of it more clearly, Judas.

you can charge your customer and make money for yourself out of the service, can�t you?

i mean if you are fairly confident on working with the softwares, meaning you can do whatever it takes, and very easily, to make your customer system to working in a normal condition again, or even in a much more better condition than what your customer expected... you would know this when they thanks, pay you for the service and also of course thay comes back to you for other services at later time, unless otherwise, then why shouldn't you happy about this instead.

technonerd · Mar 23, 2007, 12:15 AM

That goes with Vista as well, man I recieved so many problem with driver and software compatiblity issuse. Made tones of money because of it.