Uninstalling Norton 2003....

[pam123]

I've just spent close to 2 1/2 hours on the phone with tech support from Verizon and MicroSoft because of Norton 2003.
Monday I started loosing my internet connection in the middle of playing E&B . I got killed more often then I care to think about.
Then the connection started going in the middle of anything from e-mail to ordinary surfing.
I thought it was a Verizon problem and then this afternoon the problem came back to stay. I could not get a connection to the web.
During all this the Verizon DSL modem showed solid green lights and nothing wrong. I started with Verizon anyway.
I got a very good tech named Carl who methodicaly went through everything from the 4 different error messages I was getting, to settings, to various attempts to ping servers, to something I don't understand that got the connection back.
He made it clear that it wouldn't stay back unless I found the problem and it wasn't with Verizon.
"Call MicroSoft" he said.
I spent a few minutes in mourning for my phone bill and then called, after 15 minutes on hold, I got lucky again. Julie was a prize.
We typed in msconfig and proceeded to do one of those step by step trobleshooting jobs the way it's supposed to be done.
The answer, with Norton AV 2003 enabled I had no internet connection. With it disabled I had no troble going on-line.
Why?
No trouble for 2 months and then this week Norton decides it doesn't like the internet ?
I've haven't changed any hardware or added any programs since I installed Norton's 2003 ( the driver updates were waiting till this weekend).
Weekly scans, and regular updates, had turned up no viruses.
My best guess is that it was something in the last update that started the trouble.
For now I'm going back to AVG but if anyone has another AV to recommend I'll be happy to try it out.
What I don't understand is how this got past the folks at Symantec.

[morriswindgate]

WHen you use Norton System works the only parts you want to install are the Anti-Virus, Ghost, and possibly the Winfax Program. Do not install the Utilities, CleanSweep, or any other part of this program as it can cause problems.
Installing Norton is also fun, so here is my step by step guide that must be followed in order. You also need to do this in order to update to a new version of Norton.

1. If you have Norton Protection enabled for you recycle bin, go to the recycle bin properties and disable the protection, empty the protected files, Check Standard recycle bin in the show protection box, and rename the recycle bin back to recycle bin to get rid of the words Norton Protected.
2. Download the trial version of ADD/Remove Plus and Regcleaner and install it. http://www.aurelitec.com/software/arplus/ and http://www.jv16.org
3. Go to Start>Run and type in msconfig. Disable any of the norton products that start up on boot. restart computer. You can also do this with the start-up tab in regcleaner and you may find it easier this way.
4. Start Add/Remove Plus and uninstall any entries that are Norton, Symantec, or Live Update.
5. Restart the computer
6. Go to Windows Explorer and open C Drive. In the Programs Folder delete all folder with the names Norton, Symantec, and Live Update. Go Next to Start>Search and do a search for Norton, Symantec, and Live Update. Delete anything found.
7. Empty the recycle bin.
8. Run Regcleaner and on the first screen, check any entries for Norton, Symantec, and Live Update. Clcik on remove selected.
9. Next move to the Tools Menu>Registry Cleanup>Do them all and run it. You can safely remove all the enries it finds, but if you are leary find any that relate to Norton, Symantec, and Live Update.
10. WIth the exception of still cursing Symantec for not having a better uninstall program, you are now finished.
4.

[pam123]

Thanks for the heads up Morriswindgate.
I think I'll go back and run regclean again. I may have missed live update.

[pam123]

All done.
I left more than I thouht and if I'd tried installing another AV without your instructions I'd have been wondering what the problem was.
I've printed it all out for future reference.
Thank you very much !

[AlwaysUp]

MorrisWingate, I have had Norton Antivirus on my wife's Win98 box for awhile now and only when we were on dialup did I have any complaints. The Auto Update feature would initiate a dialup any old time it wanted and I found Semantec documentation that suggested that the only known fix was to disable email protection. But as we have been with our cable m,odem and I have a reasonable amount of faith in our NAT firewall with my router, we have had no complaints. My old 98SE box that I have replaced now had NAV 2002 on it and I also had no complaints. Now I just bought a second NAV2003 for my Win2k/WinXP home edition dual boot box. Do you not recommend installing this AV proggie on these OS's? Any known issues to be concerned with?

[morriswindgate]

Norton is, IMHO, still the best AV out there.
The only thing with Norton is that you have to completely, and I mean completely uninstall the old version, before updating it. I guess this is necessary to prevent a virus from altering the program, but Norton could make updating the program version a whole lot easier.

[AlwaysUp]

Well that's what I needed to know. This won't be aproblem as I have been running for several weeks without benefit of AV at all on this machine. My only protection is my router. I expect to correct this as soon as NAV 2003 is delivered. One side note is that I saw that Symantec is offering a Professional version that includes liscences for two PC's. I would probably opt for this option if I wasn't throwing away the rest of my wife's subscription.

[TwoRails]

Hi All!,

Getting in late here, with not much new to add, except: I've run Norton Utilities / System Works for virtually every version he / they've had and I've never had any problems. All has been on Win 98 or earlier rev machines.

I'm running 2002 now, but have 2003 sitting here waiting to be installed.

I also don't run the "cutsie" startup programs like Cleansweep and Protector.

HTH

TwoRails

[glc]

There is one other advantage to getting the Pro version - it installs Norton protection on the recycle bin.

[doubledragon5]

I had Norton Internet Security installed for about a year and opt to go with ZA trial for now. I uninstalled nortons after I had some errors message with the Antivirus part after I did the latest update. My antivirus program was not enabeled and I was not abel to get it to enable. After doing their steps to resolve it and not having any luck I uninstalled it instead and then returned my 2003 version. I no longer wanted to take a chance that another problems was going to happen.