Computer help? Symantec

[DaveW]

I usually pride myself on being able to figure out computer issues - after all, it is my profession - but this time, I give up - and since I know there are plenty of computer geeks () here, I figure I'd ask you guys/gals.

I've been trying to get Symantec's Client Security (antivirus and firewall) software to work, but there are a couple of issues that we came across that just don't make sense.

The issue that I'm asking about is this - with SCS installed, I can bring up a web browser, and get to all pages that I can think of, except one... msnbc.com (or www.msnbc.com) just times out... If I type in the actual redirected URL of msnbc.msn.com, everything works fine. Any guesses as to what might cause this?

While accessing MSNBC isn't critical for me, the bigger concern is that if one thing doesn't work, who knows what else might not be working?


(on a side note, the other issue I had was with an in-house program - just launching it would sometimes cause the computer to lock up. Other times, it would launch, but if we tried to use the open-file dialog, it would cause the lock up. We ultimately figured out that it only occurred when running the program from a network share - if we ran it locally, it worked fine. Then we discovered the Symantec component causing the issue - I guess SAV has a "tamper protection" feature (which makes sense considering that a lot of viruses try to disable anti-virus programs). Once we disabled that feature, we could run our program across the network.)

[MilDoc]

Fascinating. I use Symantec products too. Never looked at msnbc before but my Firefix browser does the same thing. Times out at www.msnbc.com, brings up msnbc.msn.com instantly.

I have no idea!

[mkel2000]

Just guessing here, but it could be something to do with the redirection by msn.com that the Norton product doesn't like. Does Norton contain anti-pop-up or spyware/adware protection? If so, you might try turing off those portions of the Norton product to test it. I stopped using any of the Symantec products quite awhile ago and have found that PCCillin from TrendMicro is one of the best on the market.

Mark

[DaveW]

MilDoc - No malice intended, but I'm glad someone else has that problem

Mark - In the "firewall" app, there are five options to turn on/off - Security, Client Firewall, Intrusion Prevention, Privacy Control, Ad Blocking. The last two are off. In addition to on/off, the last four have the option to configure, implying that the first (Security) isn't a separate feature, but a quick way to turn on/off everything else. However, if I just turn off the last four items, the msnbc problem still exists. But if I turn off the first option, which disables the other four, the msnbc problem goes away!

And an interesting observation I just made - it seems that msnbc.com and www.msnbc.com work in Firefox, but neither works in IE. The second (www.) didn't initially work in Firefox, but all I've been doing lately is looking at settings, and it suddenly started working.

[Salty]

First of all there is nothing on that "so-called" news site that is worthwhile anyway.
Second, get rid of Symantec. It used to be a good product but now they attach malware and ads to the point where it just isn't worth the hasstle. I crashed a new install years ago trying to load the same software. Had to start all over.
This is just me but here's what I have going.
I use AVG for the antivirus, free version.
Then I have a hardware gateway firewall with 3 PCs connected, sometimes 4 of them, and I have never gotten a virus or any other internet related problem in years.

[MilDoc]

Second, get rid of Symantec. It used to be a good product but now they attach malware and ads to the point where it just isn't worth the hasstle.

Can't quite agree with that. I've used their products since there was the original "Norton Utilities" in the 80's. I don't see ads, malware, etc, and I use a lot of different "sweepers" to keep my computer clean. No viruses, malware, rootkits, etc, in over 15 years.

Like most programs, Symantec can't be accountable for all variations of home computers, but I've never had a problem, ever, until the above. But then, I don't look at msnbc, so I don't care, just find it interesting.

OTOH, I've tried ZoneAlarm and others, and to me they're not as good. And Symantec keeps getting high scores from PCMag, MaximumPC, and PCWorld.

[Warren]

My daughter just moved from an internet provider to a company that does site design and trouble shooting among other things. I was surprised when she told me to get rid of Symantic and install AVG (free version). She also insisted that I install Spybot, another free but quality program. I guess getting what you pay for isn't wholly applicable to software.

I also read that MacAfee and Symantic are among the worst at detecting the latest bot, snakes, spyders or what ever new virus is going around. The two biggies had very low rates at detecting (less than 50%) the latest stuff and AVG had one of the highest rates.

The story related that the people building virus programs test them against the biggies these days. I'm not a very high risk but, I like being protected as much as possible.

[JamesDad]

Computer help for Dave

It sounds like you may have accidentally set Symantec to block access to that URL. To test this, open a different browser and try to go to that URL that is blocked on your usual browser. For example, if you usually use IE, try Firefox, or vice versa. Let me know if you can get to the site using a different browser. If so, I can help you remove the block that you have set with Symantec.

JamesDad's LOHL [I was sitting next to him while he was browsing here, his favorite web site. He tells me the people on this site are the nicest folks around.]

[mkel2000]

The main issues I have with Symantec are the frequency of updates and the fact that they are slow to catch up with the less "popular" viruses/spyware, etc. TrendMicro will issue multiple updates every week (sometimes several a day) as opposed to Symantec's weekly or bi-weekly updates.

Dave: It is also possible that you are seeing a DNS issue through your ISP's name server. When I do a reverse DNS on msnbc.com there are four IP addresses listed; there is a separate IP address for www.msnbc.com; there is yet another IP address for www.msnbc.msn.com (the page you finally end up at.) msnbc.com and www.msnbc.com share one common IP address. It would be interesting to try a different name server and see if the problem goes away.

Are you running any adblocker or pop-up add ons for Firefox? There may be a conflict between Firefox and Symantec that doesn't show up until both of them are trying to do the same thing.

Mark

[TheRic]

Back on topic

Dave, have you cleared the cache? If there is a bad page loaded up in cache it will display it when you go there. You might want to try clearing it a couple of times to make sure.

I have used, worked with several different version of Symantec (among other), have not noticed this before. Then again I don't go to MSNBC.
Have you tried their knowledge base, or contacted them? Sometimes just goggling finds the answers.

[DaveW]

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies so far - again, testament to why I love this BT3.

All, I don't have much of an option as far as Symantec vs another brand - it's for work, and the $$$ have already been spent. And as to MSNBC, it's not that I care about that site - it just happens to be a site that always fails, so it's part of my testing before I deploy to the rest of the computers. I just don't like anomolies like this - if one site doesn't work, who's to say that another might not - I'd much rather solve this up front rather than have to deal with our users about other random sites.

JamesDad's LOHL - as I mentioned in my second post, oddly enough, Firefox seems to work on my PC for that site while IE doesn't. For other PCs that I'm testing on, neither works! One thing I noticed on my PC was that SCSFirewall added IE to the list of programs and set it to automatic, as soon as I started browsing with it. I've browsed with Firefox, and it never gets added to that list. I've tried removing IE from the list, but as soon as I start it again, it gets added.

mkel2000, I don't disagree with you about how a lot of the security firms lag on their updates. Interestingly enough, during my testing of SAV+SCSFirewall, I noticed that I've been getting SAV updates everyday over the last few days. Also, about the DNS lookups, that was one of the things that came to mind, which might explain the other test PCs where they can't get there regardless of browser. But I can get to it on my PC with FireFox (and not IE). And on all PCs, if I disable the SCS software, all browsers can get to that site - so I doubt it's a DNS issue. Good suggestion though - (rather, I appreciate that others have the same thought process as me! ) As to popup blockers etc, I'm running Adblock and Flashblock on Firefox, and it's not blocking MSNBC - on IE, I have the google toolbar, but again, it doesn't have issues when the Symantec software is disabled.

TheRic, I just tried clearing cache etc - unfortunately, still no response. I've been scouring their knowledgebase and haven't found anything - and I've tried google, and I can't find anything pertinent - I'm running out of phrases and words to search for. I'm looking for the Symantec contact info now though.

[scorrpio]

Looks like there is some address group being blocked. Open up command line window (in Accessories) and run tracert on both www.msnbc.com and the other site that works. That will list all the server hops being done. See if you get stuck on some address.