Norton, hjt, netscape mail

[Joe van Raamt]

My Norton scanner hangs at "data\mozilla\profile\default\260g40zr.slt\mail\shawmail\inbox.
The norton intrusion prevention can not be turned on anymore since this event. Could someone please look at my HJT log file? to see if there are any nasties hiding. I tried restore to before the day this started, but the restore will not let me pick an earlier date than yesterday. I tried it in safe mode as well

[Jessica Kay]

Personally, I dislike Norton AV quite a bit as it tends to cause more problems then it solves. There are any number of free, or ones you can pay for that are significantly better.

That would solve your problem, getting rid of norton that is.

[Pat Flanagan]

Joe,

Norton used to be great AV software, but it's living off it's old reputation in my opinion. Beginning with the 2005 version, it's become so bloated that it really sucks, worse each year.

See

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1145027

and

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1144879

And many, many more. If you'd like to look further, click the Forums advanced search link at the top of this page, type Norton in the search box, check the boxes for both forums offered, and search.

If you do decide to move to another AV or IS vendor, BE ABSOLUTELY SURE to run the Symantec/Norton Removal Tool after you uninstall Norton and before you install the replacement product. Norton does not uninstall cleanly and will leave scraps and running processes behind which may interfere with the new replacement software.

It's linked from the first post I linked to above.

Pat

[Joe van Raamt]

Hi Pat, I need to know how I can have this snag fixed. I did contact Norton, but have had no reply yet. I have still 200 days left on my subscription with Symantec so I would hate to get another virus scanner when it is possible that the problem has nothing to do with the virus scanner.

[Pat Flanagan]

Joe,

I think you're going to have to wait for Norton's reply. I've shunned it totally for the last couple of years, and I'm not familiar with it's screens and settings since the 2004 AV version.

Pat

[Joe van Raamt]

Hi Pat, the symantec (norton) wrote to uninstall and reinstall and to use their removal tool. Having done that, I can't seem to find a link to retrieve my old subscription back. Now I am waiting for them to reply to that.
In the mean time I downloaded the AVG scanner, and guess what?, It found that I had been infected with the Java/Byteverify Trojan (now removed) I checked on the search link from symantec, and it did not have this trojan listed. While checking on the net, I found that there were more users with Norton who had this problem in one form or another. Like Norton detecting "a" virus but unable to quaranteen or remove it. I am finally convinced to go with AGV

[Pat Flanagan]

Joe,

Coincidentally, my daughter had Norton on her home computer. It's subscription was due to expire this week, so last weekend I removed Norton and installed Free AVG (the basic anti-virus product and nothing else). Even though Norton had not expired, so the virus definitions were current and it's real-time protection was enabled and it performed daily scans, AVG found 2 viruses on the computer after the initial scan.

Norton had anti-spyware capabilities. If you have the free version of AVG, you won't have that.

I'd suggest you consider:

Spybot Search & Destroy (read the tutorials - you can tweak it to make it much more powerful than the way it comes "out of the box"). Update and scan at least once a week. There are several pretender websites that actually download spyware instead of this product, so here's the real product's website. They request a volutary donation, but it's voluntary.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Spyware Blaster (prevents activeX spyware from getting in). Freeware.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

McAfee Site Advisor (warns you if you go to a dangerous site). Freeware, but this link is for IE only - I'm not sure they offer it for other browsers.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Others may chime in with other suggestions. We all have our favorites. The above are just mine.

Pat

[Pat Flanagan]

Oops. SiteAdvisor is here:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Pat

[Joe van Raamt]

Hi Pat,
Presently I have ad-aware, spybot and zone alarm. Would that be sufficient for spyware protection?

[Pat Flanagan]

Joe,

I think you're OK.

I've been using Spyware Blaster since the 1.3 version of Spybot recommended it, saying that Spybot did not provide complete protection against activeX. I see that caution is gone in the fully updated version 1.4 I have now.

I'm going to continue using it though because multiple layers of protection against spyware are a good thing.

Pat