Norton harrassment

[ponytail]

For about a year Dave and I were using Norton Security. When it expired several months ago, we began getting notices that it needed to be renewed. Our cable company, through which we get our Internet service, was offering security less expensively, so we decided to pick that up.

Norton, however, has continued to send us messages every day. The messages have now escalated to a couple of different kinds, several times a day instead of once or twice. The message appears in the middle of the screen (no matter what else you're doing) or at the lower right hand corner. You have to X out of it. Until you do, it's listed as an additional program running and can actually slow things down if you try to ignore it.

None of the messages they send have any option of saying "no." The only way you can respond is to pick up the service again; to X out of it is apparently not considered a response. Often the messages are designed to scare you ("You are now not protected against a rapidly spreading threat." )

We're now feeling harrassed. It gets old having to interrupt what you're doing so frequently. Does anyone know how to get them to cease and desist? Or whether there's any kind of agency policing this kind of thing that we could complain to?

[david uk]

when you switched to your provider's security, did you delete all Norton products from your computer?

I was advised to do so, and do not receive any reminders or warnings.

[ponytail]

Thanks. Dave was handling it, so I don't know. I'll go check it out.

[ponytail]

I just uninstalled it. Thanks for the tip, sweetie!:)

[paularoid]

I just picked up the latest "Norton Removers" for anybody that needs or wants them. There's one for older Windoze versions previous to XP and a different one for the more current 2K and XP versions. They're both very small so sending them out would not be a problem.

[ponytail]

Thanks for that offer, Paul. But uninstalling it seems to have worked. I've gotten no annoying messages since. Yippee!:D

[paularoid]

Thanks for that offer, Paul. But uninstalling it seems to have worked. I've gotten no annoying messages since. Yippee!:D
You're lucky. It doesn't always work so well. I can't count how much business of mine is involved in removing Norton/Symantec antivirus. I'm guessing at the figures here but I would say that 6 to 7 times out of 10 lately when I get a call it's because of Norton/Symantec antivirus problems.

Don't get me wrong because it's an excellent antivirus program but sometimes it is SO restrictive and begging to the point of being a real annoyment (to say the least) it's just not useful anymore.

What I usually do in such cases is remove Norton and install one of the freebies (that are just as capable) and most if not all problems immediately cease upon reboot.

Much of the time one of the freebies is actually a better program to go with in the first place. The reason for this is because the viruses are written with the biggies (Norton/McAfee/etc) in mind so the virus will sneak through those. The lesser known ones are not targeted and therefore they will pick up the ones that the biggies miss.

The three best freebies in no particular order (in MY opinion) are:
AVG (that's the one that -I- use as an "always on" defense)
AntiVir
avast!

Each one of those has a registered version but the free versions are almost if not in fact identical. The difference comes in the way of support. Tech support for the freebies is available by way of an online forum where the registered versions will give you personal support.

[Mimi]

avast! does a very good job, I think.
I had always used Norton before but I don't miss anything.

Mimi

[paularoid]

avast! does a very good job, I think.
I had always used Norton before but I don't miss anything.

Mimi
Yes, avast! does an excellent job! It has trojan detecting abilities that exceed those of AVG. The trojan detector portion of avast! is integral where with AVG they bought up the 'Ewido' anti-trojan program and incorporated it into the fold so to speak, but it still remains a separate module. The jury's still out on the abilities of AntiVir in the trojan detecting department (for me at least). AVG does an excellent job for me and is a little less demanding of resources so I'm not switching. Go with what works.