I HATE NORTON!

“I updated my Norton subscription at the end of October. Not long afterwords I began getting pop-ups saying a 3 microsoft.exe programs could not run. I also kept getting a pop-up saying Symantec(Norton) could not get online. I could not run LiveUpdates. I didn't recognize that I was getting up to my neck in caca.

When my computer went blue screen Friday morning I decided to solve the problem.

Friday I spent 6 hours,and Saturday over 7 hours, on the phone, talking to either Microsoft or Norton. Sober 32, a virus was found and Norton sent me the removal tool after I agreed to pay them $40. It didn't stop the problem.

I lost count of how many times I removed and reinstalled Norton. Nothing worked. I could not get LiveUpdates from Norton and sometimes couldn't get online. And the 3 pop-ups never stopped doing their pop-up thing.

I gave myself yesterday, being Christmas Day, off.

Began with Norton, at 7:30 this morning...after a couple hours with them I was back with Microsoft....I was with the same Microsoft tech guy from 9:30 this morning until 2pm. We finally got all the adware and viruses removed. It has taken me a total of around 30 hours on the telephone to get this problem taken care of. If Norton had told me to uninstall the old version of Norton before I installed the new one none of this would have happened. I have basically not been covered by any sort of virus protection since October and I was too computer illiterate to know it.

You cannot imagine how difficult it is to find and remove adware and a virus (I had the sober32 dude) once it enters your system...and Norton wanted to charge me for the Sober removal took..HA! That's a free download, which, in my case, didn't work the first time...

I have to give the Microsoft tech's credit...for 3 days they battled with me...the Norton techs tried but in the end, Microsoft saved me and my computer...

anyone else had to deal with removing a virus and adware?”

“I took it to BestBuy and let the geeksquad nuke it for me and remove all Norton software, then I went home and reinstalled Norton Internet Security myself....end of virus problems.”

“I didn't get my computer from Best Buy..I have a Dell..the one good thing, it didn't cost me a dime except for the $40 charge Norton was trying to charge me and I'm fighting that...”

“Hey Ralphie baby, ...”

“Ha! a Honeymooner!”

“One word: Fprot. Google it. one of the best on the market.”

“The new version of Norton should have detected that you had an older version of Norton AV installed and warned you about it when you installed the new one.

You don't have to get your computer from BestBuy to use the Geek Squad, however, their service isn't all that great. I have a great many customers that tried the Geek Squad and were not happy with their service.

AdAware and Spybot are two great programs for getting rid of adware and such. They are both free for personal use. Google it and download it if you have not already.

The Sober worm is a particularly nasty one. As I am sure you are aware by now, there are free tools all over the place for it's removal, one of them being the Symantec site.

Sober Removal Tool

Sometimes, all it takes to be "smart" about this stuff is a Google search. Look at the bright side, mataharihiker...now you're smarter about virus protection and adware.

Personally, I like Norton AV, but that may be because I configured it for a very large automated enterprise solution for the folks that deliver your cards, letters and packages. Trend Micro also has a good AV solution in PC-Cillin. F-Prot AV has also been a leader in the anti-virus industry back into the early 90's.

If you use a computer these days, you've got to somewhat knowledgable about security. If you don't learn some basic things about computer security, your computer will quickly become the largest and most expensive doorstop you've ever purchased.”

“i remember when we didn't have to pay for tech. support dammit...only drawback was you was on hold for 4 hours... but I guess that's how I learned to repair them myself.

I had some virus problems before, but really never had a BIG problem to remove them. Had a couple problems [kind a i guess] removing some spy ads and trojans from my kids computer...but that was about it.

lucky i guess”

“LOL,

I thought this was a blast at the Secretary of the Interior.”

“well it is all the same,norton equals sewer”

“Norton Commando was one hell of a motorsickle.......if your good at spinnin' wrenches.”

“I never paid a dime for tech support and the Microsoft guy, who spent 6 hrs with me today, never put me on hold..he listened to me mutter, swear and say things to my computer like, "run? Why should I run this virus scan you stupid computer..I'm having WAY too much fun trying to get rid of the 3 pop-ups every frickin' 10 seconds to run you...OF COURSE I want to run, you geeking machine"...the tech, name of Shannon, spent a lot of time laughing with me as we fought to find the root cause of the problem..6 hours with one guy on the phone..he is my hero...we've been emailing each other wishes for a happy New Year since we solved the problem...Bill is happy to have his girl eating again and not living in the land between rage and tears...

Oh, by the way, I emailed Symantec and got a personal email from their customer support beginning with an apology; he then directed me to a page where my complaints will be more effective as they will be documented. Plus, he gave me a number so I can make sure I am not charged for a free virus removal program. And ended his email with another apology. Tomorrow I will do this..
last edited: 12/26/05 7:56:01 PM”

“So far I've had good luck with Norton/Symantec products, including the live updates. I run a scan once a week (takes about 1 hour to do a complete scan) and its found a lot of junk - viruses, spyware, adware, etc. One thing N/S should mention is that the "live updates" simply update your security software; you STILL have to run it so it will work.”

“You're right, phydeux, I had been running what I thought was live updates once a week..used to watch it for the 45 minutes or so it took to go through my files...it always told me I was uninfected...I had no idea it was only updating my security software...I'm not sure it was even doing that now...in reality, I suspect my computer has been wide open for anyone who cared to to enter for over 6 weeks...all because I didn't know enough to uninstall the old Norton.”

“I don't have any virus software loaded on my computer. I have found that it bogs down my system and uses a HUGE percentage of the resources, so it's actually in my mind like a virus itself, giving me grief. What I do is make sure all my Windows updates are current and I run a free online virus check every few days (Panda or Trend Micro). I also have Adaware which I scan regularly to get the stupid spyware stuff off, but it's not always running in the background. I've never had a problem with getting a bad virus or much spyware crap and I surf the net quite a bit. My broadband ISP has a built-in firewall too. I think if you keep everything up to date you don't need no steeenking background-running, resource-sucking, computer-slowing anti-virus software that is giving you symptoms of what it's trying to rid you of in the first place. I know nerdy gurus would not back my advice, but I'm just sharing what I do.”

“I don't think our broadband DSL has a built in firewall...your regular scans are probably the key...unfortunately, I am time challenged...I never can remember what happened when or what I should do when unless I'm getting paid for it, like work or have to pay for it, like the dentist...I have even been known to call work saying things like, "Hey, I just realized I'm supposed to be at work in an hour and, since I'm in North Dakota, I don't think it's gonna happen..sorry, didn't know what day it was"...they are used to me writing the years wrong on the paperwork...I've learned to double check my work...
last edited: 12/26/05 8:43:03 PM”

“I don't have a lot of faith in norton products, I had some really bad problems when it expired on a win98 system 5 years ago,when it removed a few programs, including via voice. I was going to update it at the time, but since it acted like a virus itself,, after that, I said goodby norton, hello McAfee.”

“Sure makes me glad my main computer is a Mac running Tiger...

(I'm sympathetic to your plight; I have to maintain Virtual PC on the Mac and an actual PC for some client work...ugh.)”

“Symantec just called to say they were crediting my credit card the $39.95 they charged me for the free virus removal tool...I must say my compliants have received a lot of quick attention from Symantec...but, I still don't know if I'm going to renew my subscription when it falls due at the end of 2006...”

“I miss the old Norton programs that had subscriptions that never ran out.”

“any software is vunerable to attack, AV software is usually target one. For real protection get a hardware based firewall.

Oh and you might try removing that win.exe virus program, stops a lot of problems almost immediately :P”

“is that win.exe from Norton?”

“Since I'm a computer geek by trade, I do computer repairs as side jobs. As a rule, if it takes me more than an hour or two to fix virus problems its easier and faster to just reinstall Windows. A reinstall will not overwrite your data (do not choose the option to reformat the drive), and after its done it doesn't take long to reinstall the other programs like Office.

Another benefit of taking this route is you can be sure all viruses are gone, not just the one or two that you knew about.

Try this route next time, mata. Sorry to hear you went through this h*ll.”

“wow, I wish I had known that before, tt...live and learn..I know have Spybot, Spy Blaster and Adaware along with Norton..yep, I admit it, I am totally paranoid (insert goofy grin here)”

“Make sure you have a good firewall in place, too. Easiest and cheapest is the free one from www.zonelabs.com. Best option is a high-quality hardware based firewall, but software based is better than none.”

“I don't really understand how you could have installed a new version over the old one. I'm not due yet, but just for kicks, I started the installation of Norton Systemworks 2006 and after a short scan, it told me that my old version would be removed automatically.

Sorry you had so much trouble. I've been using their products on two different machines for several years with no problems.”

“VioLiN..I have an older version..you're right..you can't do it with the newer ones...I think my original was 2003 which I've been renewing online..it's now 2005...”

“Ahhh.

That stinks.”

“Any advise on anti-virus software that doesn't use up 90+% of my system resources like the new version of Norton does on my computer?

It also takes my computer 20 minutes to be usable after logging in since I installed this crap onto it. I use to like Norton, but it has left a bad taste in my mouth over the past few years. This latest version has messed my computer up so bad that I think I'd be better off with a computer virus.”

“I dumped Symantec last year back and switched to Bit Defender. Symantec started feeling like adware. Bit's less disruptive than Symantec and Norton, though its updates can nearly freeze my old computer - but setting it to prompt before updating allows me to keep the auto-updates from interfering at a bad time.
last edited: 11/26/07 12:27:48 PM”

“Forgive the brain fart - I meant "McAfee" not "Symantec." Symantec is Norton - my son has it on his computer. By the time I got my story straight and double checked my facts I was past the deadline to do the edit.
last edited: 11/26/07 12:36:12 PM”

“What's wrong with Norton? Just because he worked in the sewer is no reason to discriminate.

Ed Norton: "Hey Ralphie baybee!"”

“I have an older version Norton Internet Security 2004, it works fine...so far...”

“I had Norton on one of my computers a few years ago..the crap never worked right or was always conflicting with something else.

Just this week I got a new laptop and sure enough it came with Norton pre-installed. I thought I'd give it another try and did the free 60 day update two nights ago. Immediately nothing seemed to work..pop ups out the ying yang etc. So I uninstalled the mess..it sucks.

You may want to check your ISP website for free anti virus software download. On the main computer here at the house I was able to download mcafee for free from my ISP. I didn't think it would let me d/l it again to another computer but IT DID. ..and now my new laptop is once again blingin like an Orbitz commercial”

“I was talked into buying Kaspersky when I got my new laptop almost a year ago. I like it, doesn't consume memory in the background like the others.

Do some research, but you might consider

http://usa.kaspersky.com”

“i had Norton on my old computer, it kept deleting or quarantining important files i needed to run the computer. after the computer crashed three times so bad that i had to have techies fix it, i finally had it totally removed from the hard drive and bought McAfee, i've never had a problem with McAfee.”