Yet another Norton Sucks thread

[time]

Customer wanted to replace Norton's 'security' sh*t on their PC. No problem, I carefully uninstalled "Norton 360" first, accepting the prompt to restore the Windows Firewall.

Naturally, the Norton uninstall f**ked up Vista, so now there's no firewall at all. The firewall service can't start because of Error 5 - thank you Microsoft for yet another useful error message.

So I tried netsh winsock reset and netsh firewall reset, and something else that's supposed to magically restore the firewall, all to no avail. Also ran the latest Norton removal tool (the very existence of this is in itself a bad joke). Googling only found other people with the same problem - although some were using XP, and no-one admitted to using a N**ton product.

Normally, I could care less, but the customer has a cable modem with no router, i.e. no firewall, no NAT, no hardware isolation whatsoever.

I left it with ZoneAlarm installed, although Crapista reckons there's still no operational firewall. All the while, I had to use the slow-as-molasses Microsoft abomination to search for answers.

The chance of me putting either Vista or Norton on one of my PCs is precisely zero, but has anyone resolved this particular issue?

 

[Mercutio]

I must say that I haven't seen an error 5 on the Windows Firewall, but I'll raise a glass to the sentiment of Norton's vacuum-induction abilities.

 

[Mercutio]

Didja try this yet?

 

[ddrueding]

I had a similar problem with XP and a Norton product a couple weeks ago. I had to rebuild the TCP/IP stack...

 

[Fushigi]

Not that it helps but my wife's laptop shipped with Vista HP and a trial of Norton Internet Security. NIS uninstalled just fine.

The bigger issue, though, is your customer needs a briefing on defense in depth. Routers should be considered mandatory for anyone who doesn't do dial-up (dial-up users should still use a software firewall). Between the hardware firewall and NAT, his machine will be invisible to port scans and many other threats.

 

[time]

Didja try this yet?

No, couldn't find that page at the time, plus I couldn't figure out why the permissions would be wrong ...

I had a similar problem with XP and a Norton product a couple weeks ago. I had to rebuild the TCP/IP stack...

Any idea how to do that with Vista? It's a Comcrap so presumably there's no media.

Not that it helps but my wife's laptop shipped with Vista HP and a trial of Norton Internet Security. NIS uninstalled just fine.

You're right. It doesn't help.

I know about router benefits, obviously. If anything, I was taken aback that anyone was still set up like that. They had scavenged a Belkin wireless router from somewhere, so I explained how handy that would be and found the power supply for them, but didn't have time for another adventure actually installing it - I had originally planned to be there 10 minutes ...

 

[ddrueding]

Try this.

 

[LiamC]

I agree with Time that the very existence of a tool to remove Norton available from Symantec is proof positive that their uninstall routine is crap. I helped someone out with this and still spent three hours manually cleaning the registry before it was able to boot and connect.

IIRC, Security Centre complained that there was no Firewall, when other tests confirmed it was active.

My first question now when someone asks for help is, "Do you have any Norton, Symantec or McAfee Antivirus or security products installed?"

If the answer is "yes", my answer is "sorry, I can't help you."

 

[Mercutio]

Every security products vendor I'm aware of, except Computer Associates, has an external removal tool. You can't go by that.

 

[Tannin]

McAfee doesn't have a removal tool - or didn't last time I looked - and it is, if anything, even worse than Norton.

 

[Chewy509]

McAfee doesn't have a removal tool - or didn't last time I looked - and it is, if anything, even worse than Norton.

They sure do, and have for a while: http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507

Are there any decent products left being produced by Symantec, other than Ghost???

 

[Bozo]

Have you tried CCleaner after the Norton uninstall?

 

[mubs]

Why should they even need a removal tool? To me that smacks of lousy programming. If the removal tool can cleanly remove it, why can't the uninstall function? This doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Tannin]

Thanks Chewy! That will become one of my most-used programs!

 

[Mercutio]

They sure do, and have for a while: http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507

Are there any decent products left being produced by Symantec, other than Ghost???

I'm fairly impressed with Backup Exec 10.

Anyway, step 5 in my Spyware Removal Guide includes links to various Security Vendors' removal tools.

 

[Howell]

Symantec Cleanwipe will remove many Symantec products. It is only available after you open a support case.

It can remove:
Symantec Endpoint Protection
Symantec AntiVirus
Symantec Client Security
Symantec Sygate Enterprise Protection
Symantec Network Access Control
Norton AntiVirus
Symantec System Center
Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager

 

[Howell]

Why should they even need a removal tool? To me that smacks of lousy programming. If the removal tool can cleanly remove it, why can't the uninstall function? This doesn't make any sense to me.

There are some programs that can interfere with un/instalation routines such that manual removal is necessary. As an anti-virus program, Symantec is a ripe target for this interference.