Norton Anti-Virus Problem Solved?

[blueblood]

This appeared on local computer club web site today.

Reports of trouble with some installations of Norton Antivirus (NAV) are circulating on security forums.  Users are receiving a message that Auto-Protect is unable to start, causing computers to have no real-time virus protection.



One club member has experienced the same problem.  I advised her to manually run Live Update from within Norton Antivirus and download and install all available updates.  One of those was a Common Client update, a critical component of NAV.  After a restart, her Windows XP Home system and Norton Antivirus now run properly.



It has been my experience that the modular design of Norton products periodically leads to trouble.  This occurs because modules rely upon others to work correctly and at times, not all modules update together.  This may leave incompatible module versions which can cause software failure.



The two modules that seem to cause the most trouble are Symantec Common Client and Symantec Redirector.  Updates for these modules are frequently issued by Symantec but LiveUpdate does not always automatically download them.  So the first thing to do in case of trouble is to

 

[Ron]

Another solution is to dump Norton and install AVG. ;D ;D

 

[Tom]

FWIW I have AVG installed on one notebook and Chris' desktop. It appears to work just fine on the notebook, but really slows the desktop down, although I haven't figured out why. The notebook is a faster machine with more RAM, but that doesn't explain the extreme effect on the desktop. NAV on the same desktop doesn't cause the slowdown, nor does it affect the other notebook.

Still scratching my head.  ???

 

[blueblood]

Another solution is to dump Norton and install AVG. ;D ;D

I use AVG but thought it might be helpful for some one who has Norton

 

[Ned]

In most, if not all, AV programs, the biggest slowdown is the option to check all files when opened.  Turn that off and the impact on speed should be little or none.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Ned. I'll check it out when we get home. Both computers have the default installation/options, but maybe the higher speed and larger RAM of the notebook make it unnoticeable.