Norton 360 Firewall Broken?

Curious if anyone else is experiencing this, and if its a bug or my installation is busted.

I have a fully patched Norton 360 install on my kid's PC, sitting on a Vista Home Premium box. He has this chat software he uses for one of his games that calls home as well as to two server IP addresses. I went into the Firewall settings within Vista, and changed the settings from Allow to Custom, then set it to only allow the two IP addresses. This way, the software can't "call home", but can only go to the two sites.

Imagine my surprise when after I restart the chat app, Norton 360 throws an alert (I have it set to do so) giving me the option to Allow or Block (cant close this window, you have to select on or the other). Selecting Allow gives the app full rights (inbound and outbound, any IPs, etc.). Selecting Block blocks EVERYTHING. In both cases, my settings are overwritten.

What's the point in allowing configuration of the firewall, if the app won't accept anything but Allow or Block??

Has anyone else experienced this? I've submitted a note to support, but while I like Norton 360 Norton support is (as always) Norton support.

 

you can set the custom rules in norton

 

I know; However, when you set the custom rules including IP address limitations in 360 it appears to not hold the settings at all. If I just customize to say Outbound Only, it will work. Try setting it to Outbound Only but also specify on certain IPs. In my case, it will re-prompt and overwrite what I had.

I'd love to see if anyone else can replicate this.

 

This is probably a silly question, but have you tried talking to Symantec Support? Maybe it's a known issue and/or they might have a workaround for it or something...

 

Phone support is a pay call, and I have a ticket in to them on it - They take about 48 hours to get back to you, so I wanted to see if anyone here has experienced it while I wait...

 

Just go to the support button in 360 and there you can chat for free with analysts...

 

Not about to have a remote-connect agent put on my machine if I can help it...

 

Well, if you don't trust Symantec...ok, go for something else. They always ask by the way.