TopShelf TG Fiction in the BigCloset!
As part of the continuing saga of computer woes, I have been completely unable to find a phone number for Norton. There is the Norton Community Forum, but so far the posts there are mostly complaining about Norton's unresponsiveness to their problems. Did the founder of the company sell out or something? Maybe I should buy a Mac?
Much peace
Khadijah
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Is Norton going out of business?
Download a Mozilla web browser and see if that will help. http://www.mozilla.org/ . I use t nd am able to get here.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
I had it all wrong
Norton... Time, hormones and surgery can't take it all out of you; I was thinking motorcycles :)
Norton software..ugh the first thing I do to a new computer is wipe it clean to remove any trace of the cancer known as Norton. They seem to think they know better than any user possibly could so it is interwoven throughout you computer to monitor everything in sight, yes it is thorough but it does slow it down.
There are good freeware firewalls, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs available. Also safer browsers like Firefox with ad-ins to prevent scripts and harmful cookies. None of these programs are invasive as Norton is nor do they cost you speed.
Looking at my documentation
Looking at my documentation I come up with two aids,
Norton "Call Back" Phone Support, where you fill out the on line form and provide a time and number for them to call you, or
Or this page, which in the bottom right block offers a help now service for a price.
Thanks Dean
I will give this a try.
K
Two years ago ...
I did a test on my computer.
Norton found nothing.
McAfee found nothing
Kaspersky found 211 dodgy files.
Panda found 783 dodgy files.
I go with Panda. Takes a few more minutes on start-up (but you can switch that off) and it is quite simply the best, IMHO.
I wouldn't touch Norton, nor McAfee with the proverbial barge-pole.
Good that you're back though.
Keep in mind that most of
Keep in mind that most of those 'dodgy' files are clips from advertisements in your internet cache, and cookies. They're not actually dangerous files.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Norton Support
Norton is part of Symantec. Go to www.symantec.com for assistance with Norton products.
You should definitely...
You should definitely buy a new mac if you can afford it. Any modern mac, to suit the form factor you want. And be done with it.
And if you can't afford it, install Ubuntu instead. And wait another month-ish for the new version to come out (I'm running the alpha now) and its user interface is getting *increasingly* macish. :-)
I haven't heard anything
I haven't heard anything about Symantec going away. You didn't find anything usable under the "Contact Us" tab in the footer of the symantec.com webpage?
Symantec
It is next to impossible to make Symantec go away! I don't use Windows but my sons both do and I am de facto technical support as one might guess :(
Symantec is just like Norton, it gets it's hooks in deep and just doesn't want to let go. Every time I fire up one of the Windows laptops to do a 'Windows Update' I get nagged by Symantec - even though I have tried to get rid of it.
Try to buy a computer without it already on, and then put something sensible on it. Like another commenter said, these products were once good but now they are just like a tar pit.
Penny
Avast!
I personally found Norton products to be very resource hungry. Their original DOS based utility suite was good, but their competitors have caught up and overtaken them. I use avast! for my virus protection now, as this doesn't seem to be a resource hog, and at the time I first switched to it several years ago it was the only free software provider that supported the 64-bit version of Windows XP.
D.L.
HeHe, I found avast for the
HeHe, I found avast for the very same reasons, and I love it. It's faster than most it's pay for competitors and catches more virii/Trojans/Malware... But if I ever get hit with something nasty, I use a custom linux boot cd with ClamAV to clean my windows partition and then repair it if needed using Windows Recovery Console.
-HuGgLeS-
-P/KAF/PT
Avast! isn't the only free
Avast! isn't the only free one that is worthwhile. Both AVG and Avira are in the top quality range (In fact, these last three quarters I think Avira has been solidly in the top-5 all category).
For firewalls, Comodo is my free firewall of choice for Windows.. It's consistently been a top contender on security for a while now, surpassing most of the commercial ones at keeping things out. They have antivirus too, but I don't know what quality it is.
The real problem with the free ones is that they aren't cooperating as well to give a coherent in-depth protection. And sometimes getting rid of the manufacturer installed ones is a process fraught with peril. Getting rid of McAffee is an example - some of the process you *have* to do in safe mode. Some of the process you *have* to do after that, and then return to safe mode. Most other security solutions have conflicts with theirs that lead to crashes when logging onto your account in Windows.
McAfee and Norton convinced me to switch to Mac
When I went to buy a powerful laptop, it turned out to be impossible to get it without McAfee or Norton unless I bought it with no operating system at all. So, I went with Mac because McAfee and Norton are like viruses themselves. They are almost impossible to remove and they have deleterious effects on the security, efficiency and usefulness of your system. And they are extortionate, constantly threatening you with doom if you don't buy an upgrade or add-on.
Macs are more secure because they are based on Unix, and having a smaller slice of the market, no one writes viruses for them anyway. Very little malware at all. The same is true of Linux unless you want to run Apache.
The only thing Windows machines are good for is running games these days. And many people I know simply setup a windows partition on their machine, install WinXP or Win2000 and play games there. Some modern games require a Win7 install but there are also solutions like windows emulators that allow games to run on Mac or Linux.
And really, this stuff is no more technical than posting a blog here on BC. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I use Avast and Malwarebytes
So far I haven't gotten anything that they couldn't tackle and the best part they're free. Most computer geeks I know use them also.
Lisa
Peter Norton hasn't been
Peter Norton hasn't been part of the company for a very long time.
Basically, Symantec buys other peoples' products, screws them up, then sells the division off to someone else.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I feel like an idot
Ya know, there are people who really should have a mate that supervises them. My X did that for as long as she could tolerate me. I really should wear a steel collar and be chained up somewhere when my Master is not home. :(
Looking back at the situation now, I should have bought a reconditioned Mac. But did I, Nooooooo. I bought a Toshiba and it has some really nifty features. But now I feel like I am naked in public with the virus and win7 vulnerabilities.
I know that there are lot of other OSs out there, but I have been comfortable with widows because it is less um fussy. I did try firefox, but it just doesn't do the things I like. Some of these other systems that people recomend may be wonderful but I am not technical with computers.
I am a writer, and am trying to become a good Science Fiction writer. I already did that techinical shit while spending 32 years as an Electrician, and I think I used all my technical cells up; that or they were stored in the little brains that I had cut off.
As it is, I have to save every penny I can now for the move back to Oregon; you know, $300+ for gas to get there, $300+ for Motels unless I sleep in the car. First and last months rent, plus food, plus utilities, you know, all that stuff. What the hell, you either live or die right?
Khadijah
$300 for gas?
In the UK, that's about a tankful these days :(
And no, I'm not exaggerating.
Penny
The way prices are going
It's not going to be much better here before long.
Gas prices
Gasoline in my area, SoCal, is about $1.01 per liter for regular ($3.83 per US gallon), prices in the UK a little over twice that at about £1.32 a liter. I have a 41 liter tank and it cost me $44.50 to fill it yesterday (it actually holds about 47 liters). In the UK, that would have cost about $95. A week ago, gas prices here were almost 20% lower. Have they spiked as much there in the last few days?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I paid
137.9 pence per litre for diesel lunchtime today. My tank is 60L so I'll need a mortgage to fill it next time. We also appear to have a new crime of people drilling holes in fuel tanks and just stealing a gallon or two and letting the rest drip away - a real fire hazard.
Angharad
Angharad
Fuelprice
Over here (Sweden) it's about $2 per litre, of which over 60% is tax. (Carbon emissions tax & energy tax, and a 25% VAT on the price after those taxes. Why don't I bundle all three taxes together when talking about it? Because VAT is not paid under all circumstances). The biggest winner on high oil-prices is always the state here.
Never. ever
having owned a car.....I sort of smile at such figures.
Price break down
There's a handy diagram of how UK petrol / diesel breaks down here (as in Sweden, about 63% is tax): http://www.petrolprices.com/price-of-petrol.html
Ironically, the volume of oil reaching the market hasn't changed that much - both Saudi and Russia have increased their production to compensate for the loss of production in Libya. So the recent hikes are all about market jitters rather than a real sense of supply and demand. There have been rumours petrol could reach £1.50 per litre (about $2.40 per litre or about $9.10 per US gallon) by the summer if the Middle East remains as volatile as it is at the moment.
Meanwhile, road maintenance budgets are likely to be severely cut over the next few years (no doubt leading to more insurance claims and a hike in insurance premiums), along with cuts to subsidies to public transport. I wonder what employers would think of people parking horses in their car parks? :)
(Aside: the wonders of topic drift...)
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
My computer problems are the
My computer problems are the stuff of legends, and as such my Norton experience might just be colored, so take this with a grain of salt ;-)
The last time I tried to use Norton was ... I want to say four machines ago, about eight years. It was a Windows XP (32bit) machine anyway. After installing the software, something "went wrong". I can't say exactly what happened. All I know is that Norton somehow got it into its ... whatever passes for a brain, that my hard drive was now full, bearing in mind I had a good 500MB free prior to this.
It wouldn't let me uninstall, and it wouldn't let me reinstall/repair, and it had total control of my delete function, so it wouldn't let me delete anything unrelated either.
I did a complete hard drive format, and I've never touched Norton software again. I can tolerate a lot from software, but when the cure acts like a bigger virus than the viruses, I draw the line. :-)
Shrug
FWIW, I've had not had as much difficulty with it. Resource consumption has not been bad and yes I am aware of past problems. For removal, there is a removal tool available from Norton (symantec). Their most recent efforts have ranked pretty high in the reviews so I gave them another chance and everything seems okay. Another goodie antispyware suite is webroot's spysweeper.
Kim
That's actually kind of
That's actually kind of reassuring. I mean, knowing it was just one bad experience, that is. :-D I try to keep an open mind about all things, especially when it comes to computer failure, taking into account a healthy dose of PEBKAC ^_^
I forgot about Spysweeper. I used to use it on my second-to-last PC before the hard drive crapped out for unrelated reasons (Faulty drive overall, IIRC. I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did in retrospect)
AV Comparitives
This is an independent site which, twice a year, evaluates a large selection of antivirus products and rates them.
2010 Summary available here
It's a fairly long PDF, but as well as the awards filling the first dozen or so pages (F-Secure has won this year's 'best' award), it also has reviews and screenshots of the major players. They do recommend you download and evaluate trial versions before parting with your hard-earned cash though, as while they test antivirus performance, most AV programs offer various other features and tools which may / may not be useful.
As for me, a few years ago when I had a Vista laptop, I used ESET Smart Security which ran pretty well and was fairly unobtrusive. Nowadays, I run Linux so can manage without one (as hardly anyone writes viruses for Linux - OK, mainly because hardly anyone uses it, but also because it's a lot more secure than certain other operating systems).
In a world without walls and doors, who needs windows and gates?
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
The largest problem I've had
The largest problem I've had with ALL of the virus packages, other than ClamAV, is the "We have to do EVERYTHING!"
AVG/Avast/Avira/Aeverything Aelse All want to be an anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti malware, and anything else they can think of that has 'anti' in front of it program.
It's horrible. For windows systems, there are only three things you need to watch for.
1) Files executed on the hard drive (loaded, but generally system/executable files)
2) New files created on the system. (This includes attachments in emails you try to open).
3) Network assaults - which gets covered by #2, in general.
Having the antivirus intercept your incoming and outgoing email so they can be scanned is STUPID. That means that every attachment is scanned three times. Once coming in, once when copied to the hard drive to be opened, and once when you open it. That's two more times than is necessary. For outgoing files, it means that it's scanned when you open it to attach to the email, and when it's encrypted for the email, and then when it's actually emailed - it's then decrypted and scanned again. (if your subscription expires, say goodbye to your email. They don't just quit protected your email, they block your ability to send or receive email until you've uninstalled them. With a removal tool, because 'add-remove programs' often fails)
As for Phishing - they can't recognise it half the time anyway, so why do they persist in scanning every link on every site that's visited? That just runs up your bandwidth charges (if you're in a per-k zone). If you can't -recognise- phishing, that's what you need to do rather than depend on software. Learn the hazards. It's like jumping in the car and going driving without finding out what a pothole looks like.
The last thing? THEY DON'T WORK.
That's right. They do not work. Using the ExtortionWare as an example, it's updated so frequently that it blows through the A/V programs. Usually using an exploit in the various PDF readers, they're loaded through one pixel square iframes in web pages or advertisements. It loads at least one file, often that one file plus the TDDS rootkit. That one file then executes when you boot the machine, and blocks every executable program other than the web browser - and tells you you are infected with hundreds of deadly viruses, and that you have to buy their wonderful software to fix it. The systems I've found it on? Oh, they're running AVG, Avast, Avira, Kapersky, McAfee, Norton.... you name it.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
OH, why did I not buy a MAC?
I could have had a mac for about another $300. By the time I bought this little laptop, I am into it about $650. Did I mention I need a husband or Master really bad? My roomates never have virus problems.
So sad, so sad.
Khadijah
Because you were looking for a computer not makeup? :P
Because you were looking for a computer not makeup? :P
Ohh! You meant why didn't you buy an Apple... An Apple Macintosh Computer...
MAC = Makeup Artist Collective? Cosmetics?...
-HuGgLeS- and -GiGgLeS-
-P/KAF/PT
I bought a nice mac
and left it on a subway train. It was purple, 3/4 length and had a hood.
Sorry, couldn't resist that one.
I don't often have virus problems because I'm too busy having hardware problems, and if I could afford a Macbook I'd have no money to fix it when it inevitably broke. I get the impression that owning a Mac computer is like owning a BMW, it's a nicer ride and anything done under warranty is fine but if you manage to break it your bank account will take a hit.
Hugs
Cat
-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
Well, you could make it a
Well, you could make it a Hackintosh. the Mac OS will install on most Intel platform hardware nowadays, and the OS is only about $30, US.
Otherwise, you could also make it a Linux box - Kubuntu and Ubuntu are easy to use, and you can try the 'live' version without affecting your hard drive.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
For all you Linux Fans
Check this out. http://my.deviantart.com/messages/#/d2jpbiq It's a definite LOL!
. . . .
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.