Spyware, viruses, & security : Here we go again!
root file delima
by uncleremus - 1/20/06 9:35 AM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13A little while back after trying to renew subscription to norton and getting credit card billed twice for wrong amounts, they sent me "free" of charge security program, which upon instalation started causing problems........in typical fashion they ran me round and round with tech support and dell computers tech staff.......per instructions by symantac i uninstalled program using removal tool they provided and low and behold after completion of this task....base root file was missing and I was dead fish in water....habibe and the towel head techs at dell said it was virus and the clown works techs at norton said it was not their problem........finally called micro soft and they said there is a confliction problem with xp and norton program and that norton did not want to admit it. with the help of microsoft tech we reinstalled missing file and system works fine.......my problem is that dell nor symantac thought the reinstall of file was option..... so you can just imagine the hours of exciting hold music igot to listen to.........I now have 3 dwarfs and a pigmy pony armed with incense stinkers protecting my computer and it works out just fine thanks.......tennis anyone?
IMHO, Norton *is* a virus!
by twyrick - 1/20/06 10:23 AM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13I do on-site computer service and support for a living, and I've seen literally hundreds of systems that had problems that were tracable to Symantec products.
This is a great example of a business profiting from an established brand name (Norton) that has meant practically nothing for years.
The reason Norton products (like Norton Utilities) gained so much fame and popularity in the 80's was because they were written (for MS-DOS) by Peter Norton, a brilliant software developer. But by the time Symantec bought the rights to the product and started producing Windows versions, Peter was no longer involved in their development at all! He was merely collecting royalties for the use of his name and face on the front of the packaging.
Today, using Norton Utilities for Macintosh is a sure way to corrupt your OS X drive partitions and/or cause a system crash, because the product was never updated regularly to keep up with changes to the OS itself. The Windows anti-virus software is a big resource hog, at best, and SystemWorks has caused problems for years - including a broken uninstaller that leaves pieces behind in the registry and causes 16-bit subsystem errors when opening DOS boxes in Windows, etc.
The product activation is another BAD idea that Symantec seems to embrace these days. My former boss purchased 25 OEM copies of Norton AntiVirus 2004 when it first came out, and in at least 8 cases, the product told us our registration keys were "previously used" - so we couldn't activate it after selling it to customers and trying to set it up on-site. (That really looks professional, huh? Clients just love it when you can't even get a product registered that you sold them!) My guess is, software pirates developed a key-generator program to register their pirated copies illegally - and it was randomly finding these valid, unused key codes. Getting Symantec to issue us new, valid keys for the products we paid for was impossible - so we ended up throwing them out and switched to AVG.
Symantec is Intrusive
by porlockgirl - 1/20/06 11:24 AM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13Having combated three viruses in one year while using NAV/NSW I threw in the towel and COMPLETELY removed NSW and every file and reference to Norton and Symantec, manually, from the registry. Instantly my PC's speed increased noticeably.
Within the past four years of using AVG there has been no virus on my system, no loss of speed. It is practically invisible and not intrusive. Except for a nightly scan around midnight I hardly know it's there.
Symantec has a long way to go to get to this point.
NSW 2006
by billie1966 - 1/20/06 12:57 PM In reply to: Symantec is Intrusive by porlockgirlAs a test for myself i have NSW 2006 and NIS 2006 running on one of my PCs and Zone Alarm Security Suite along with system Mechanic Pro 6Q running on the other PC. Both PCs have win xp sp2 installed. I hate to tell you because I have been a Nortons supporter for years since 1990 but NSW 2006 and NIS 2006 have caused my PC to freeze and crash on more than one occassion. The other PC is running beautiful at top speed . I would strongly recommend not bothering with NSW or NIS 2006. Zone alrarm security suite is easy to configure and is not a resource hog . System mechanic keeps my PC running smoothly , the first time running system mechanic and completing all of the scans it will highjack your computer upon reboot for a long time but once you have done all of the deep analysis you will be flying high with a smooth running PC and ongoing monitoring of PC resources with out loosing nay speed.
NSW and Norton Anti Virus
by valrider - 1/20/06 1:44 PM In reply to: Symantec is Intrusive by porlockgirlLast year I experienced a major crash of one of my computers, which was running Norton's programs. Prior to that I had experienced minor breakdowns on both of my computers (they operate under Windows XP Pro with Office 2003 Pro, Adobe Acrobat and Macromedia Dreamweaver). It never dawned on me to suspect Norton's as being the cause. After getting help to restore both systems I was advised to drop Norton's programs because it was causing the breakdowns, also that it did not like working with Adobe Acrobat and my anti-phishing software. I dropped all Norton's programs. Since then, the two computers have operated smoothly with no hassles. Coincidence?
OT-TINGAY
by yagnit - 2/1/06 10:55 AM In reply to: Symantec is Intrusive by porlockgirlHope this is not a no-no.
Read your profile porlockgirl, and saw name of your grandmother. Am trying to trace this very name (Alice Tingay)in England. Genealogical interests! If you could contact me at maberco at gmail.com would appreciate it.
yagnit
This IT Pro no longer uses Symantec Products
by corvinm - 1/20/06 3:27 PM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13As an IT Professional I learned a long time ago to stop using Symantec's AV and other products.
SystemWorks and AV slowed down my system tremendously and I would oocasionally get a random blue screen of death on Windows XP Professional when using them.
At work we use TrendMicro's AV products on our servers, so I switched to TrendMicro's PC-Cillin 2005 based on lots of praise (including a CNet review) and I am so glad that I did. This product doesn't slow my system down at all, updates itself without any problems, and caught infected files that were missed by Symantec AV.
I recently upgraded to the 2006 version for only $24.99. . .much less expensive than Symantec's upgrade price.
Root Kit technology is primarily used as an extreme method of copy protection that can even evade detection by Windows, which can cause all kinds of problems. I would advise people to avoid installing any product from any vendor, including Microsoft itself, that utilize root kit technology.
Norton is junk
by thegame102 - 1/20/06 10:27 PM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13Being a tech on the side I would never recommend Norton to anyone. I've work on many computers that had Norton or McAfee and their problems was either viruses or trojans. I feel some web sites rate them high cause of sponsorship. But another problem that I must express,Symantec and other big companies are trying to destroy our ways of freeware. Something must be done about this before it’s too late. Symantec for example is now going after Spybot you can read about it on their home page http://www.spybot.info/en/news/index.html. Symantec has proven its intents as like for Sygate firewalls they bought out the company and discontinued of the software, in the first place I find Norton firewall basically junk and people realized this and couldn’t compete against Sygate so with their money from market shares they bought their company out, remember Sygate had very good free firewall in which I personally think it was better then the paid Norton. I find Norton nothing but a bunch of junk with its software being a resource and memory hog. Last year I tried Norton Anti-virus and was upset to watch a Trojan pass right through it, so out it went I then tried Avast free Anti-virus program and went to the same file that had that viruse and was amazed that Avast block that viruse from coming on my computer. Now with the latest news that Symantec Corp.'s spokesperson admitted to using this rootkit type feature in Norton SystemWorks to hide a directory so customers wouldn't accidentally delete files. So what is a rootkit? A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. Is this the software you want protecting your computer? Is this the company you wanna support that takes our freeware away? Just somethings to think about.
Rootkit Residue
by robertmro - 1/21/06 6:08 AM In reply to: Norton is junk by thegame102OK, I read all the Norton bashing and agree. So I dumped all Symantec software from my computer but can someone tell me if there is still some part of it in my rootkit that needs to be removed?
(NT) http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html
by thegame102 - 1/21/06 6:44 AM In reply to: Rootkit Residue by robertmroSymantec garbage vs. Microsoft garbage
by rub - 1/21/06 11:08 AM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13If Symantec is trying to outdo Microsoft in the garbage production department,they can't do it. Admittedly, they do produce a lot of very persistent, hard-to-incinerate stinky stuff but Microsoft has them outclassed in volume. I used to spend hours in cleaning Symantec's stuff out of my system ( the registry had hundreds of entries and I always managed to delete some other entries as well - forget backup, who wants it all back - I'd sooner reload new Windows crap rather than keep the old stuff along with Symantec ) and their downloads to assist in cleanup never worked either, unless you had a completely uncorrupted system, in which case the need for removal is interesting discussion. So, I doubt if I'll ever use Symantec again, considering I don't see any superiority over their competitors who don't produce the aggravations.
LOL IRONY
by OneThirtyEight - 1/22/06 7:32 PM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13LOL
Can we say "Irony"?
Wow. An anti-virus that can give you a virus.
That's a bigger oxymoron than MS Works.
(NT) LOL !!! Thanks !! :-)
by tobeach - 1/22/06 9:56 PM In reply to: LOL IRONY by OneThirtyEightNorton has been BANNED from any computer I control ...
by VernonE - 1/24/06 5:55 PM In reply to: Here we go again! by seafox13for the years now. I LOVED Peter Norton's products when he owned and ran the cocmpany, but after he sold it to a big corporate entity it started to go downhill. I started having 'Live Update' problems I tried to follow their fix on the web site and the fix failed totally I could not reinstall and the my system went flaky. I backed up my data and did clean XP install and never ever touched another Norton product!
(NT) My sentiments and actions same as you! :(
by glenn30 - 1/25/06 8:54 AM In reply to: Norton has been BANNED from any computer I control ... by VernonE
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