Norton Internet Security 2003

Sorry for this to be so long....

I want to find out something which Symantec were about as much use as an ornament on. You buy these things and pay for subscriptions to keep it updated and you get no help if its a lil old.

Firstly, I would just like to say that I emailed Symantec about my problem and they just threw an email back saying that online help had stopped for that version...gee thanks.

My problem is, a while ago when I had NIS 2003 I ran live update as normal, got the updates and everything was good. Until I noticed that my Intrusion Detection was off...I tried to turn it back on but I kept getting a message to check my windows account isnt limited or something ??. I looked up some help from other places and just decided to reinstall it.

I ran live update again, and it decided it wasnt going to get all the updates so I had to run it a second time. This time I was keeping an eye on my settings and it did it again...it turned off intrusion detection.

I figured there must have been something wrong with my pc so I recovered everything and reinstalled everything because I was so fed up at that time, ran it again and the same thing happened.

I decided to give up on NIS 2003 figuring it must be a bit of technology to try and get you to buy the most up to date version and decided to have a bit of trialware for a few weeks.

After a little while I decided to try once more to see if it settled, nope this time it went the whole hog, after uninstalled my trialware (before reinstalling) and having no other antivirus or firewall for it to conflict with... I clicked live update and got a big blue screen, my computer rebooted itself and when it came round it said it had just recovered from a serious error. Just to check, I uninstalled and reinstalled (yet again!) and clicked live update and it happend again!.

I have ran a few online scans other than norton and they have came up clear. I have now bought NIS 2005 (very reluctantly and only because it was on offer and I could just about afford it) and everything seems to be great.

Has anyone got a reasonable explanation for what happend or are Symantec just great at screwing money out of everyone?

Just for information, I have Windows XP.

 

I don't have a reasonable explanation, other than the fact Norton has a rather complex program which has a tendancy to go wrong. I had big troubles with Symantec and their rotten customer support, which is why I have switched AV & FW and will never use Norton again.

It is certainly brave of you to pay up for yet more Norton, let us hope it lasts the course this time. I still had about 7 months to run on my licence when I finally gave up on Symantec.

 

If Norton works fine it, well works. Unfortunately, in some cases it does'nt. in these cases un-install it and fined another AV. To be honest any of the free AV's are a better bet.

 

I have to say since I binned Norton Virus and Firewall, my computer has been a much happier beast and purrs along.

There are plenty out there, that are far superior, myself I use Sygate Pro and AVG7 Pro and I have had no problems with either.

Horses for courses I guess, but no way would I ever have a Norton product on my Computer , ever again.

 

some light reading for you.... here and here and here
cheers,
Buck.