Warning about Norton's Internet Security, bit of a blog.
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fredlongworthhighschool
- Mega Advanced
- Posts: 362
- Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:34 am
- Location: Manchester, England.
- Contact:
I'm not sure this is entirely relevant, but I had a conversation (totally useless) in March with Norton tech support about a problem that was driving me insane. Here is the correspondence, which I include for its entertainment value:
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-----Original Message-----
From: symantec_support [at] ecemail.ece.com
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 4:03 AM
To: webteam [at] chai-online.org
Subject: RE:Privacy / Ad Blocking [#1472453]
Hi Elaine,
Thank you for contacting Symantec Online Technical Support. I understand the difficulties that you are currently facing.
In your message you wrote:
>If a user has Ad Blocking enabled, some graphics and even some hypertext links will not appear on his site. As a web developer, this is of great concern to me. I can disable Ad Blocking on my own computer, but what about all the users of my websites?
Elaine, I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
However, please note that we are not in a position to provide you a comprehensive list of all the keywords that could trigger Norton Internet Security (NIS) to identify the link or the graphic as an Ad. Some of the most common key words are "Ad", "banner” and 'popup'.
Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance.
Best regards,
Ashik Cariappa
Symantec Authorized Technical Support
**********************************
Don't you love it?
**********************************
-----Original Message-----
From: symantec_support [at] ecemail.ece.com
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 4:03 AM
To: webteam [at] chai-online.org
Subject: RE:Privacy / Ad Blocking [#1472453]
Hi Elaine,
Thank you for contacting Symantec Online Technical Support. I understand the difficulties that you are currently facing.
In your message you wrote:
>If a user has Ad Blocking enabled, some graphics and even some hypertext links will not appear on his site. As a web developer, this is of great concern to me. I can disable Ad Blocking on my own computer, but what about all the users of my websites?
Elaine, I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
However, please note that we are not in a position to provide you a comprehensive list of all the keywords that could trigger Norton Internet Security (NIS) to identify the link or the graphic as an Ad. Some of the most common key words are "Ad", "banner” and 'popup'.
Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance.
Best regards,
Ashik Cariappa
Symantec Authorized Technical Support
**********************************
Don't you love it?
Jeez! I wonder how many developers use the word "banner" in their header grapics for a company website... quite a few I would think. And how many of up have used "popup" in our own js scripts (like a function called popupWin() to open a new window, for completely legitimate reasons)? Wonder how this affects Milonic's often-used popup() menu function?
Bunch of self righteous, over zealous pricks. They may not care how their new stuff affects developers, but they'll care when it starts affecting their bottom line.
Apparently the product has many other issues... want an idea of how their customers are resonding? Read this. Wonder what braniac at Symantec approved this plan?
Kevin
Bunch of self righteous, over zealous pricks. They may not care how their new stuff affects developers, but they'll care when it starts affecting their bottom line.
Apparently the product has many other issues... want an idea of how their customers are resonding? Read this. Wonder what braniac at Symantec approved this plan?
Kevin
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darkcircuituk
- Super Advanced
- Posts: 49
- Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:57 pm
John Wrote:
I decided to try this dummy virus after hours of contemplating the reprocussions that might come about it if wasn't a dummy
I started to download the dummy virus thinking that McAfee would kick in any second and tell me I am trying to download a virus and then immediately stop the download. Guess what? It let me fully download the file and only told me it was a virus when I tried to implement the file
This in my opinion is a very bad way in which to virus protect, I know of viruses in existance that just need to be downloaded and they will cause damage to your computer, you don't even need to implement them.
The first thing I did after finding out this revelation was to uninstall McAfee and then I proceded to try out a few different anti-virus programs. If you want a nice basic no thrills virus checker that will not slow down your system but doesn't look great, then try panda anti-virus.
BUT if you want 100% protection and you are not concerned about your system slowing down or that your system is so bloody fast you would barely notice the slow down, then go for Norton Antivirus!! As mentioned in earlier posts, it does slow down your computer a lot and is very resource hungry, but I know what I'd rather have, a virus free computer. I am always on the lookout for new revolutionary software, but until they produce a fast reliable anti-virus software, then Norton r my guys
Dave
I used McAfee for a couple of years and I was quite content with the service it provided, not one virus in 2 years, I was bloody shocked. A member of my family one day decided to alert me to the existance of a website that allows you to download a dummy virus that you can use to check that your virus checker is working fine.I'd strongly recommend Zone Alarm Pro. I use that along with McAfee and never had a problem. I used to use Norton products for many years previously.
I decided to try this dummy virus after hours of contemplating the reprocussions that might come about it if wasn't a dummy
I started to download the dummy virus thinking that McAfee would kick in any second and tell me I am trying to download a virus and then immediately stop the download. Guess what? It let me fully download the file and only told me it was a virus when I tried to implement the file
This in my opinion is a very bad way in which to virus protect, I know of viruses in existance that just need to be downloaded and they will cause damage to your computer, you don't even need to implement them.
The first thing I did after finding out this revelation was to uninstall McAfee and then I proceded to try out a few different anti-virus programs. If you want a nice basic no thrills virus checker that will not slow down your system but doesn't look great, then try panda anti-virus.
BUT if you want 100% protection and you are not concerned about your system slowing down or that your system is so bloody fast you would barely notice the slow down, then go for Norton Antivirus!! As mentioned in earlier posts, it does slow down your computer a lot and is very resource hungry, but I know what I'd rather have, a virus free computer. I am always on the lookout for new revolutionary software, but until they produce a fast reliable anti-virus software, then Norton r my guys
Dave
Dave,darkcircuituk wrote:
BUT if you want 100% protection .... then go for Norton Antivirus!! ......but I know what I'd rather have, a virus free computer. ......until they produce a fast reliable anti-virus software, then Norton r my guys
Dave
I have had a number of machines now that have been running up to date Norton Antivirus protection, that I have found viruses operating on. I am one of about 8 tech people who have had the same experience.
We all installed the free Grisoft Antivirus product and found between 12 and 66 viruses on each of the problem machines. Grisoft removed them and fixed most of the problems. Its free.
I would never recommend Norton anything to anyone now, and neither would anyone I know who has spent the last 10 years or so supporting hardware or software.
They only have the market by the proverbials due to the good image that Peter Norton gave with the origonal products and how well they worked back then (basically people liked being able to get their lost info back), and how much money they throw at keeping their product at the forefront of shop staffs minds by software deals and heavy advertising.
With Zone Alarm, I found that the speed of transfer of files from a machine on a gigabit network halved, while it was running. An older version also used to blue screen windows SQL server advanced. I used a Tiny Personal Firewall (older) Free version and speed was much higher. However Tiny do not do a free version now.
I have gravitated towards using Mailwasher Spam killer, then Thunderbird for email (after using netscape mail for years and never getting a virus- NS mail was too dumb for that
and firefox for websites, grisoft AVG for viruses and one of the plethora of spyware catchers, and believe I am much safer than many who use MS products with large corporations safety products. And all for Free.Cya
Norton stuff not so good..
Dave,darkcircuituk wrote:
BUT if you want 100% protection .... then go for Norton Antivirus!! ......but I know what I'd rather have, a virus free computer. ......until they produce a fast reliable anti-virus software, then Norton r my guys
Dave
I have had a number of machines now that have been running up to date Norton Antivirus protection, that I have found viruses operating on. I am one of about 8 tech people who have had the same experience.
We all installed the free Grisoft Antivirus product and found between 12 and 66 viruses on each of the problem machines. Grisoft removed them and fixed most of the problems. Its free.
I would never recommend Norton anything to anyone now, and neither would anyone I know who has spent the last 10 years or so supporting hardware or software.
They only have the market by the proverbials due to the good image that Peter Norton gave with the origonal products and how well they worked back then (basically people liked being able to get their lost info back), and how much money they throw at keeping their product at the forefront of shop staffs minds by software deals and heavy advertising.
With Zone Alarm, I found that the speed of transfer of files from a machine on a gigabit network halved, while it was running. An older version also used to blue screen windows SQL server advanced. I used a Tiny Personal Firewall (older) Free version and speed was much higher. However Tiny do not do a free version now.
I have gravitated towards using Mailwasher Spam killer, then Thunderbird for email (after using netscape mail for years and never getting a virus- NS mail was too dumb for that
and firefox for websites, grisoft AVG for viruses and one of the plethora of spyware catchers, and believe I am much safer than many who use MS products with large corporations safety products. And all for Free.Cya
Norton keyword list link
Just found a PDF online that lists a bunch of the keywords used by Norton.
http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/pdf/p ... ocking.pdf
Can't vouch for accuracy, but it's a good place to start.
http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/pdf/p ... ocking.pdf
Can't vouch for accuracy, but it's a good place to start.