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Norton AntiVirus 2000
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I also have gripes about
Norton Anti-virus 2005 |
Try as I might, I could not install Norton AntiVirus 2000 on one computer running NT4.
August 17, 2000. About a year after is debut, I finally bought Norton AntiVirus (NAV) 2000 and tried to use it under Windows NT4 (SP3). The specific version of NAV was 2000.00. Of course, it didn't work.
I installed the program with no obvious problems. I took the least intrusive options, that is, I didn't ask it to do anything but install itself. I set it not to automatically start and boot time, not to use auto-protect mode, not to run Live Update after installation, etc. etc.
| The first problem I had was when I tried to run a virus scan: |
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To deal with this, I poked around the NAV 2000 tech support web site and found Document ID: 1999101812173306 (Created: 10/18/99 Last Modified: 07/12/2000) which described this error message and what to do. Unfortunately, it only addressed Windows 95 and Windows 98, not NT4. Considering the product has been on the market for so long, its unlikely that I was the first NT4 user to experience this problem.
Basically, the document said to uninstall NAV 2000, do a clean boot and re-install. Having nothing to lose but time, I tried this as best I could under NT4, but it did not solve the problem.
The second problem I had was when I tried to put NAV in auto-protect mode.
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| Back to the tech support web site where there was a document that directly described this problem for Windows NT4. The Document ID is 1997112417922 and it was created: 11/24/97 and last modified: 07/05/2000. The first part of the document said to download and run a file. Doing so resulted in the error shown on the right. |
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Nonetheless, the document said what to do in this case, and to make a long story short, following the instructions fixed this error. Unfortunately fixing this error, did not fix the other error. I could run NAV in auto-protect mode, but could not perform any manual scans.
There was also a third problem, Live Advisor did nothing at all when I clicked on it. I didn't bother with this however.
Next I entered my tale woe into the discussion group for NAV 2000 on the Symantec tech support web site. Symantec (someone named Jim) responded with three suggestions:
If the version of the product was not 6.10.20 then I should upgrade NAV to this version. My new CD-ROM was at version 2000.00. But, you can't just run the Live Update feature to update the product. No, this would mean it was working as designed. Instead you have to first update Live Update itself. How? Not with Live Update, that would be too easy. Of course, Live Update appears in the control panel as its own application and running it from Control Panel it has an option to update itself (an Update Now button). Of course, this did not work, it said Live Update was in use by another application. I trusted it (my mistake) so I logged off, rebooted, logged back on and ran it again. It still said that it was in use by another application.
They pointed me to a document (ID number 1999051911110813, created 5/19/99, last modified 7/19/00) on their tech support web site that tells you how to update Live Update. This document leaves out one important fact: how do you know what version of Live Update you are running? Without this tidbit of information, its hard to know whether you need to update. Its also hard to verify that an update took. The document starts out explaining how to un-install Live Update, but not why. Is it necessary to un-install the old version before upgrading to the new one? Beats me.
The first time I tried to update Live Update my Internet connection froze in the middle of the download. Data could flow out of my computer but not into it. I clicked on the CANCEL button to put the download out of its misery. Not so fast. It said "it may take a few moments for Live Update to finish cleaning up". It took more than a few moments. I waited and waited. Eventually I shut down my net connection and Live Update died immediately. The next time the download ran fine.
Eventually, I did update Live Update and it looked different so I assume the update went well. I ran the new version of Live Update to update NAV 2000 itself (it also found an update to Live Advisor). This went well and NAV 2000 is now at version 6.10.20. Of course, this did not fix the problem, I still can't run a virus scan.
The next thing they said to try was delete all the *.TMP files that are not in use from my computer. How can I tell whether a *.TMP file is in use? That they didn't say. They did say all the files though, not just those in the C:\TEMP directory. This seems fishy, how could a TMP file in a directory belonging to another application cause NAV 2000 grief? If it does, then I probably don't want to run NAV 2000 in the first place.
The third thing they suggested was to turn off the extra stuff involved in a virus scan, the boot records and scanning within compressed files. I did, but it did not help.
Back to Symantec with my tale of woe....
This time Nikki responded (August 21, 2000). She said to delete all the *.TMP files. Any that are in use will cause a prompt from Windows and will not be deleted. Oh.
If this does not help, then I am directed to un-install NAV 2000 again and try and install it a whole new way. Basically the idea is to copy the product from the CD-ROM to my hard disk and installing it from my hard disk in stealth mode. This sounds like grasping at straws. I bet my money on version 5 not fully un-installing itself and version 2000 not being able to handle the tidbits left over by version 5.
The big problem here is that tech support is guessing and giving me every solution in their little database that relates to installation problems. Why are they reduced to guessing? Two reasons:
The error message is useless. "Error running the scanner". Thanks for nothing. A problem was detected but not enough information about the problem is provided for anyone to really understand it. The programmers were too lazy to externalize the details of the error they found. This is a disgrace.
The installation process leaves no footprints. The other half of the error message is "You may need to reinstall Norton AntiVirus". Okay, something might have gone wrong with the installation. How would anyone know? The installation process does not create an audit trail of its activities. It should. I should be able to send Symantec a text file showing everything that happened during the installation so they can see if there were problems.
October 2000. The next thing Symantec suggested was un-installing and re-installing using some hidden option. I did not take their advice. There is a document on their tech support web site about how to un-install NAV2000 completely. I read it and did it. I also read a document about how to un-install NAV version 5 and I did that too since the computer in question had NAV v5 and I installed NAV2000 on top of it. These instructions included advice on how to delete all traces of Symantec and Norton programs from the registry in addition to all the files. I deleted everything from everywhere.
Then I rebooted for good luck and installed NAV2000 again. It still did not work. Same as before: Error running virus scanner. Again, there was no prompting at all to register the product during the installation process.
Uninstalled NAV2000 yet again, rebooted and re-installed NAV v5. Its happy. Downloaded latest virus definitions without incident. For whatever reason, NAV2000 was allergic to my computer.
November 6, 2000 On an NT4 machine, I upgraded the Java Virtual Machine to the latest and greatest (a jview command from a DOS prompt shows version 5.00.3319). After the JVM is updated, a reboot is required. During the first boot, NAV 2000 said there was a virus in file C:\Winnt\java\classes\xmldso.cab. This turned out to be a false alarm. The virus definitions were as of October 10, 2000. I said to ignore the virus and after the reboot completed, I started NAV 2000 and ran a manual scan on the directory where this file lives. No viruses.
The error shown here is the full extent of the problem reporting. Clicking on the question mark in the window shown below did nothing. I checked the activity log and there was nothing there about this at all. The lack of error related information is the real gripe. Hopefully it will work another day. |
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January 29, 2001. Same problem as yesterday. It downloaded the entire software update again today, about 173K.
| February 2, 2001. I updated my virus definitions today but chose not to try and update the NAV software. The software update however has changed as seen here. The yellow exclamation points are normal and serve to warn the user they did not opt to accept the update. There are now two parts to the software update, previously there was only one. |  |
February 9, 2001. I tried it again and today it worked. There were new virus signatures that I opted not to download in attempt to keep the process as simple as possible. Along the way however, I was asked by ZoneAlarm about allowing RunLR to access the Internet. What is RunLR?
Beats me. Guessing that it was part of the Norton AntiVirus update process, I
let it access the Internet. According to ZoneAlarm it is version 1.0.0.2 from January 25, 2001 and
resides in |
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After the software update and a re-boot, Norton AntiVirus still reports, via Help->About, that it is version 6.10.20. No change. Interestingly, program RunLR is no longer on my computer.
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After the software update has been applied, Norton AntiVirus no longer tells you how big the files were that you just downloaded. This screen shot was taken before the download started. |
 May
17, 2001. Norton AntiVirus 2000 on Windows NT4
workstation at SP6a.
Live update failed to download new virus definitions. The first step of Live Update where it determines the available updates ran fine. Then when I asked for the updated virus definitions to be downloaded, it failed almost immediately. The download never seemed to start. I did this twice. The biggest gripe here is that NAV provides no detailed error messages. What happened? It basically just says that it didn't work (see image at right). There is no way to know the error details. Even if I contacted Symantec Tech Support about this, there is very little to tell them. Four days later, I tried it again and it worked fine. |
October 9, 2003.
A reader emailed to tell me about an item on the Symantec web site that
might fix this problem:  |
Norton
AntiVirus Freezes Some PCs
PC World Magazine. September 2000 issue. Users of Norton AntiVirus 4.0 and
later versions have reported a slew of problems with the product, including
computer freeze-ups. Other problems effect Netscape Messenger. Symantec confirms
that the virus definitions dated June 16, 2000, and June 19, 2000, are
responsible for these problems
WindowsME Resurrects
Viruses
November 9, 2000. A reader of the Langa List newsletter found found that WindowsME's automatic system-file restore process
made it very hard to remove a worm from his system using Norton AntiVirus
2000. See my Windows ME gripes for more on
this.
FYI: Read my gripes about Norton Anti-virus 2002 and Norton Anti-virus 2001 and Norton Anti-virus 2003
FYI: The main tech support for Norton AntiVirus is here. You have to select a particular version of NAV. Symantec also provides an online knowledge base for current products and one for old products.
FYI: Corporate users should read gripes about Symantec business practices regarding the licensing of NAV. April 24, 2002.
| Page last updated: October 16, 2003 |
