I'm at my wit's end with NORTON ANTIVIRUS!

[IamMine]

already posted in Cyber Safety and was suggested to post here to get more help.


http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/...ad.php?t=94367

I've uninstalled and reinstalled so many times, followed all the available directions at the symentric site, even called the tech support TWICE.

Nothing worked.

Not even upgrading to SystemWorks 2006 made any difference, even though I was still good with the 2005 for another 7 months! *sigh*

I even did a search on this site and followed some suggestions like the Rnav2003 ultitiy.

Even ran a clean boot to reinstall, doesn't work.

Still gives me an error during the installation:

"C:\Progra~1\Norton~1\Norton~1\Speedd~1\NOPDB. EXE
Service: Error accessing the OLE Registry."

Then when I rebooted and it still gave me the auto protect as "off".

I went to the services under control panel and now it gives me those errors when I try to start the service and changing it to 'automatic':


"Unable to query status for service Norton Antivirus Auto-Protect Service.
The remote connection on Local Computer has been broken."
Error 1060: The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

Tech support has no clue on how to fix this!

They told me to call back if I keep running in the same problem and I'm just tired of calling them... being on hold for 30 minutes to an hour!

I'm hooooping I would have a better luck asking anyone here who ran into a similar problem and how they got it fixed.

I'm just so....

Additional notes: I forgot to mention that it also give me an internal program error when I attempt to open the Norton Antivirus or try to enable the Auto-Protect option.

Thanks!

[magzelliott48]

Hiya. I don't think I'll be of much use to you but when I first got Symantec 2005 I had SO much trouble with it that no matter what i tried with help and suggestions from loads of people, I eventually had to send it inot the guy who deals with my machine. He was really baffled with it all and I THINK???? that he had to go into the registry, and manually delete all the entries which pertained to Symantec and then re-install. The only other problem I've had since has been with the Live Update which I managed to sort myself. As long as you back up your registry first you might like to try locating all the norton Symantec entries after you've uninstalled and then try again. As long as you have a back0up of your registry, then there's no problem
Cheers
M

[campo]

I gave up on Norton years ago, in fact, at one point it let me down badly when it was not doing its job without me knowing and I ended up with about 20 viruses on my system!!

You are much better off using the completely free AntiVir. Which is here:
http://www.free-av.com/
The only thing is it pays to manually check for updates about once every 10 days - this is easy.

Again, I can highly recommend it. I also tried the free Avast anti-virus but I cannot recommend it.

campo.

[IamMine]

I just got off the phone with those idiots at the tech support... I apologize for using the term "idiots" but they know NOTHING!

They told me what to do what I ALREADY did.

"Run online scan for virus threats"

Me: "I already did that last night and it found no threats"

Tech: "Run it again and call back"

Me: "Excuse me? It took me all night running that scan and there is no way in hell I would wait another hour and a half trying to get through somebody at the tech support!"

This guy kept saying to run it again... I said listen, I already did it twice this week.

I will NOT run it again and I will NOT call you back except for a refund, which I will once I find another antivirus program running on my computer!

IDIOTS!

[IamMine]

What about Trend Micro?

Any postive/negative experience?

[Rich M]

Trend Micro or PC Cillan which is the program is decent, but it is still overbearing software like Norton and MacAfee. Go with the pros and use NOd32 (www.nod32.com), you will never regret it, and Oh, it catches more virus and Trojans, than any other program and has for the last 16 years.
You need to go to Symantec site and download the removal toll to get rid of all that mess, or "the danglers" will hang in your registry destroying your next life. That's another reason I would never use that junk. Oh and please don't listen to the :"Free" Av bunch. The Free ones are great for the experienced users that can catch virus in their teeth, but for the average user, the updates seldom work right and the ability to prevent intruders is minmal, as you might imagine with free. I mean I have a shop and the more poeple use Avg and Avast, the more business I get, but that isn't the way it should be.
Oh and in 11 years in business, I have never taken in a pc for repair with virus or spyware problems that had Nod32, Kaspersky, or Bit Defender installed.

[Rainbow32]

Had Norton dumped it, tried my luck with AVG & Avast free, got infected, now using the AV with the most awards from this independent testing lab. Register, it's free, they don't even ask for your e-mail address and check out the comparatives.
https://www.virusbtn.com/login
The winner is Nod32.

[IamMine]

Rich M, I am going to purchase NOD 32, but is it safe to download it while Norton is running?

I just don't want my laptop to be 'left alone' with 'no protection' when i download something.

Once I get NOD32 running, I'd remove Norton.

[IamMine]

Here's the negative comments I found on NOD32 from download.com

1) just can't recommend this virus scanner. It does scan fast but only because, by default, it scans a limited set of known virus files. When you scan all files it adds more time to the scan, although I still would say its better than most. I will says that its not as resource hungry as Norton. Also, what irked me is that when you perform a system scan it will say that it can't scan certain files because they are in use. Well, what if a virus is hiding out in one of those files? Also, I've had the problem where NOD pops up and says it found a trojan but it won't let me delete it. As for the user interface, its just not user friendly. You can't set it so that when it finds a virus to automatically delete it. You first have to scan it and then run the "clean" scan. Furthermore, it's just not user friendly in that a lot of options are crytpic or hard to find. I'm using Norton 2005 now. It uses a bit more resources but have it configured the way I want it and fell more confident that it will actually remove an infected file.

2)I recommed Norton Antivirus 2005 it does detect spywares,trojons etc.2005 edition is better than 2004.Nod32 does not detect all viruses specially spywares.Not a user friendly program.

3)
Pros: It has a great heuristic engine. It is quick at scanning but make sure to do an In-Depth scan once in a while. Light on the system.
Cons: If you have nothing better to do in life...buy NOD32. It misses viruses in the temp folders...but developers say thats OK because they are not active yet?!!? If they are there active or not I want them gone. The interface is highly confiqurable and if you have nothing better to do you can set it up after spending several hours learning what to do. If you go to the official NOD32 forum their moderators will tell you that the default setting that come with the product are not good enough. The people ESET has helping people actually have a tutorial on how to set it up right...like what...the developers could not set it up right in the first place??

4)
Pros: free
Cons: had 1 trojan an guess what it couldnt do anything with it.i have the win32/rootkit trojan cant get rid of it with ANY av on here yet,dell says they can for a 1 time fee of 49.95 i would rather spend it on software i can use daily but seems like only way so far

5)
After reading the reviews, I was tempted into installing NOD32 to see what it was like. I wished I never did. I tried to install this thing two times to no avail. It only partially installed the first time with NOD32 shortcuts and a NOD32 system process. The second time it told me I needed some special version of winsock 2.0 or some mess like that. Winsock is some kind of Internet protocal. As to why a antivirus even needs this in the 1st place to install, I don't know. The uninstall didn't work. I was trying to uninstall the garbage NOD32 partially installed to no avail either. When I logged on to the Internet again, I found that my operating system couldn't find my modem. I tried uninstalling the driver. Didn't work. I checked my device manager, everything said it as A-ok. I couldn't get back on the Internet since until I reformatted my computer. Be very cautious when installing this.

6) I dont know who theire trying to kid saying this not a resource hogger,my PC: winXP pro with 256 mb ram usb adsl modem it literally choked my internet connection down from a healthy 800kb/s to 500kb/s. when your running this prog keep an eye on task manager and see how much this thing gobbles up resource/bandwith.After two days it was erased from my PC.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Those were the few ones.

I just wanted to make sure what I was getting into.

I'd appreciate any more inputs!

[Rich M]

Originally Posted by IamMine

Here's the negative comments I found on NOD32 from download.com

1) just can't recommend this virus scanner. It does scan fast but only because, by default, it scans a limited set of known virus files. When you scan all files it adds more time to the scan, although I still would say its better than most. I will says that its not as resource hungry as Norton. Also, what irked me is that when you perform a system scan it will say that it can't scan certain files because they are in use. Well, what if a virus is hiding out in one of those files? Also, I've had the problem where NOD pops up and says it found a trojan but it won't let me delete it. As for the user interface, its just not user friendly. You can't set it so that when it finds a virus to automatically delete it. You first have to scan it and then run the "clean" scan. Furthermore, it's just not user friendly in that a lot of options are crytpic or hard to find. I'm using Norton 2005 now. It uses a bit more resources but have it configured the way I want it and fell more confident that it will actually remove an infected file.

2)I recommed Norton Antivirus 2005 it does detect spywares,trojons etc.2005 edition is better than 2004.Nod32 does not detect all viruses specially spywares.Not a user friendly program.

3)
Pros: It has a great heuristic engine. It is quick at scanning but make sure to do an In-Depth scan once in a while. Light on the system.
Cons: If you have nothing better to do in life...buy NOD32. It misses viruses in the temp folders...but developers say thats OK because they are not active yet?!!? If they are there active or not I want them gone. The interface is highly confiqurable and if you have nothing better to do you can set it up after spending several hours learning what to do. If you go to the official NOD32 forum their moderators will tell you that the default setting that come with the product are not good enough. The people ESET has helping people actually have a tutorial on how to set it up right...like what...the developers could not set it up right in the first place??

4)
Pros: free
Cons: had 1 trojan an guess what it couldnt do anything with it.i have the win32/rootkit trojan cant get rid of it with ANY av on here yet,dell says they can for a 1 time fee of 49.95 i would rather spend it on software i can use daily but seems like only way so far

5)
After reading the reviews, I was tempted into installing NOD32 to see what it was like. I wished I never did. I tried to install this thing two times to no avail. It only partially installed the first time with NOD32 shortcuts and a NOD32 system process. The second time it told me I needed some special version of winsock 2.0 or some mess like that. Winsock is some kind of Internet protocal. As to why a antivirus even needs this in the 1st place to install, I don't know. The uninstall didn't work. I was trying to uninstall the garbage NOD32 partially installed to no avail either. When I logged on to the Internet again, I found that my operating system couldn't find my modem. I tried uninstalling the driver. Didn't work. I checked my device manager, everything said it as A-ok. I couldn't get back on the Internet since until I reformatted my computer. Be very cautious when installing this.

6) I dont know who theire trying to kid saying this not a resource hogger,my PC: winXP pro with 256 mb ram usb adsl modem it literally choked my internet connection down from a healthy 800kb/s to 500kb/s. when your running this prog keep an eye on task manager and see how much this thing gobbles up resource/bandwith.After two days it was erased from my PC.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Those were the few ones.

I just wanted to make sure what I was getting into.

I'd appreciate any more inputs!

Please don't listen to these illiterates, what each one says is in no way true except for the fact the fast scan is because it is a surface scan, but remembner you can intensify that scan, if you want to.
Then we have the one who says Norton detects spyware and Trojans better, and that is a flat out lie. Norton catches almost no Trojans.
That business about difficult install, person must have been on drugs.
And so on..what a big bunch of compete crap!

[Rich M]

Originally Posted by IamMine

Rich M, I am going to purchase NOD 32, but is it safe to download it while Norton is running?

I just don't want my laptop to be 'left alone' with 'no protection' when i download something.

Once I get NOD32 running, I'd remove Norton.

Download it with Norton on board, but before you install Nod, uninstall Norton.

[IamMine]

Thank you, Rich M!

I will purchase it tomorrow and then hopefully all's set with no problems!

[kittifaye]

I could write a whole page on my Symantec Nightmare. Yes that was the exact problem I had...could NEVER activate the auto protect no matter what I tried! I had lots of other problems as well. I was on the phone for hours with them, and they would just leave me hanging. And yes they asked me to do the same things over and over to correct the problems...everytime I called I got a different Tec!

I gave up on phone support, and resorted to email support. I have 48 pages of printed email support, none of which solved the problems. It finally was a matter of completely deleting and removing the whole NIS 2005 from my system, including registry entries...then to do a clean re-install with CD.

I had to trick the Cust Tec into walking me through it by phone. I made him believe I intended to reinstall. When that sucker was off my PC, and the Tec said now we'll re-install the program. I said like hell we will, and hung up on him.

I did manage to recieve a refund of my $60 back form Symantec. I downloaded a form from their website and sent in the CD and a copy of my sales receipt where I had bought it from Circuit City. I got a check from them a month later. Hope this helps some.

[IamMine]

Hahaha! Smart move re: tricking the customer tech into helping you removing everything!

Darn... I wish I had thought of that yesterday....but now they know I'm angry and want my refund back!


Geez, never thought it would have been this bad...been using Norton for 3 years!

[Rich M]

Originally Posted by IamMine

Hahaha! Smart move re: tricking the customer tech into helping you removing everything!

Darn... I wish I had thought of that yesterday....but now they know I'm angry and want my refund back!


Geez, never thought it would have been this bad...been using Norton for 3 years!

Hey try for a refund though, as she did and there is no earthly reason they won't give it to you with all you have been through. They know what a flawed mess their software is.