Help! I can't make NOD32 work on my computer!

I purchased and downloaded NOD32 to my computer today.

Let me backtrack, I'm running Windows XP home, Service Pack 1 (I've got the SP2 disc, just haven't gotten around to updating). I'm on a dialup connection. My ISP is EarthLink and I'm using their Total Access software which has its own browser and mailbox and a bunch of protection bells and whistles already on it. It has a Spyware blocker and a ScamBlocker and EarthLink also scans emails for viruses at the server level. Also, it will toss any email that is not from someone in my address book into a folder on their server where I can go through it before it gets to me. It also will toss what it considers to be obvious spam into another folder which self-deletes. They also offer one of those dial-up connection accelerators that uses a proxy server to speed things up to near DSL levels.

I have always used Norton's, never had any problems with it until recently when the version I was running, 2005, stopped updating it. I contacted Symantec and they told me to uninstall and reinstall the software, but I found that my CD was broken. I bought McAfee's Virus Scan 10 and tried it and it gave me nothing but problems for the two weeks it was on my computer, I was constantly putting out fires and I finally put in to get a refund on it, and once I knew the refund went through I uninstalled it.

NOD32 was suggested to me by someone in another forum because of its small size and its small use of resources, given my dial-up connection. I also did some research about it and liked what I saw, so I went ahead and purchased it. That may have been a mistake, I probably should've done the trial first, but I had enough confidence from what I'd heard to buy. Now I'm about ready to go looking for another refund.

I downloaded NOD32 from the Web site after making the purchase. I uninstalled McAfee from my system. I used add and delete programs AND the McAfee removal tool. I then installed NOD32. Everything seemed to go fine. It did ask me whether I was using a proxy server, and not being exactly sure how my EarthLink stuff is set up, I clicked "I don't know, use what IE is using." (EarthLink's browser uses IE as a starting point.)

After the installation was complete, it prompted me to restart. I did that. It took FOREVER for my computer to reboot and FOREVER for the login screen to come up. Then my desktop came up, I could see the icons, and the NOD32 screen appeared in the middle and just sat there. I mean for 10-15 minutes, doing nothing. Then an error message came up saying that network settings had changed and that IMON wouldn't work like it was supposed to. When I clicked out of that error message, the icons were still on my computer but I didn't have the start menu or the system tray at the bottom. I tried control/alt/delete to log out, but it didn't show me as even being logged onto the computer. I finally had to kill the power at my surge protector to make the computer shut down.

When I rebooted, it seemed like things had fixed themselves, it booted up quickly, I got the login quickly and my desktop was OK with the start menu, etc., and the NOD32 logo appeared and disappeared. The green CC was down in the system tray showing that NOD32 was working. I opened the control center and saw that it was updating automatically. However, I noticed that the IMON icon in the control center was gray instead of green. I clicked on IMON and it said that IMON wasn't enabled. I clicked on the button to enable it, and it said IMON would be protecting when the computer rebooted. I rebooted and the first problem happened again. So I called ESET support and got a very nice bloke named Nigel on the telephone. He emailed me a Winsock fix, advised me to uninstall NOD32, reboot, install the Winsock fix, reboot, reinstall NOD32 and see if that fixed the problem.

I did all that, it seemed like NOD32 was installing as it should, but when it got right at the end it gave me an error 121 with a big, red "X" that said NOD32MOD_WINT_ENGLISH_INET.

I called Nigel back and he said something was keeping IMON from loading on my machine, maybe some software. He said he was going to email me WinAudit and Hijack This and wanted me to run them on my system and send him the logs. However, when I tried to get online to do this, I kept getting constant, I mean one every second, error messages saying something like "System32/IMON.dll," like it was looking for this dll and couldn't find it. I could not access the Internet, I could not get email.

The only way I could get my computer functioning again was to do a System Restore, it was that bad.

I finally was able to get Nigel's emails, plus he also suggested that I try to install NOD32 with the PC in Safe Mode first, or if not try to install following NOD's 'Expert' mode and not enable IMON, and then try to enable IMON afterwards (try this in either Safe or Normal Mode).

But the thing is, since I'm in System Restore, all the ESET stuff is totally out of my program files. I still have the installer, but quite frankly I'm scared to death to try this again.

Basically, I'm looking for an anti-virus I can load on my computer, turn it on and forget about it, which was what Norton's always was for me, and I thought from what I'd heard NOD32 would be it, but it's turning into about as big a nightmare as McAfee was.

Can anybody tell me what might be going on here or give me some advice? Is it the fact I'm still running SP1? Is it my dial-up connection? Is it the proxy server? Is it the protection stuff that's already working through my EarthLink browser (for a certain amount a month, they'll give you complete protection including antivirus, but I'd rather have my own program so that I can have control over it)?

Quite frankly, I'm to the point of saying the heck with it and reloading NAV 2002 on my computer. I've still got that disc, and while I've heard that Symantec doesn't support it anymore ... whatever that means; all I care is that they update the virus definitions ... at least I know it works and doesn't screw up my computer.

I'm sorry to be so long winded, I just wanted to give as much detailed info as I could.

 

I would install Service Pack 2 from a Disk, then run any further updates available.

Very unlikely.

Again, very unlikely.

I would turn this off or uninstall it before installing NOD32, just to eliminate another area.

I wouldn’t advice this route.

Can you please download the Norton Removal tool from this link: http://service1.symantec.com/suppor...452606?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1#_Section1 and then run the downloaded file.

Once you have done the above, there is a step by step tutorial on installing NOD32 and tweaking it up.

IF and only IF this fails, please download WinAudit from http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winaudit.html and save it to your desktop. Run the utility. You can click on 'Options' to remove any personal information from the audit if you wish. Send the file to support @ nod32 com

Once you have NOD32 installed it can be set and forget.

Let us know how you go...

Cheers

 

Hi, I tried that and I think it's going to work. I installed the software, got no error messages, rebooted, everything seems to be working OK, IMON is enabled and the updater is working as we speak. Thanks!

 

Good to see, now you might want to take a walk through NOD32's settings HERE

Cheers

 

Hi Big G 94,

welcome to our growing Eset family G'd to hear that everything is sorted out. Should you come across any problem in the future, this forum is the best place to receive a swift response either from Eset's moderators or other experienced NOD32 users.


Marcos