Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[Edmund]

I posted my problem here two days ago and 've just spent a few minutes sifting through the latest posts. It is clear that many of the contributors know what they are talking about from a technical point of view. I have worked as an IT Professional for over 30 years and I use Norton because the technical teams that worked for me said it was the best. They also advised against Vista (wisdom!) and I have no need to move to Windows 7.

I think the thread is in danger of becoming a bit diffuse. I think we should focus on the fact that many products running on a range of platforms suddenly stopped working sometime after 5th May 2010. I am running XP with Svc Pack 3 on a modern desktop.

Using phrases like “the threat landscape continues to grow and change everyday” sounds like rubbish taken from a marketing handout.

So Reese - and Dave if you’re still reading what is being posted – can we please have timescale for a solution and don’t let anyone else from Symantec advise that we need to upgrade.

[hvgsel]

Just curious :

Does anyone here pay for a subscription to AV updates for version 2003?

If you pay for yearly subscription :

• Symantec should solve the problem or at least offer you an alternative that works with W98 and for WXP systems a free update to the 2010 version. Version 2010 isn't a resource hog anymore, as some expect.

If you do not pay for yearly subscription, then :

• yes, you own the product (the license was that way in those years)
• no, you do not have the right to complain about not receiving AV updates anymore. In those years, you only bought the software, but you only bought a one year subscription to AV updates.

Although i do not like the way Symantec is handling this, this case should be seen in the right perspective.

Users with version 2006 and further do pay for yearly subscription and do not own the software anymore, but just buy the righr to use it, accompanied by a one year right to upates.

[AGP999]

In an earlier post I said that I support machines running NSW2003 on XP-SP3 which have paid yearly subscription fees in advance. These are old m/c's (ie. 1.4GHz with only 256Mbyte memory - can't add more)

These m/c's struggle to run NSW2003 so no way will they cope with upgrading to Norton 2010 software.

One of the m/c's is owned by an 83yr old house bound woman with little inclome.  Not only can she not afford a new computer, but would find it very difficult to learn Win7, Office2007 etc etc

Any offers of vouchers for Symantec Shop are of no use for these old systems, and does not address the issue with paid in advance subscriptions.

As subscription fees have been paid in advance, Symantec have a duty to resolve the issue, not just offer unwanted vouchers.

There is some indication that they might, but they certainly haven't promised us anything.  In the meantime it would be helpful if they updated Lanak's posting to be honest about the full extent of the problems (ie acknowledging it effects not just 9x but also XP and Norton's Business Users) and to appreciate that customers may have reasons for not upgrading their m/c's.

[NORTOFF]

Lets talk about the elephant in the room...these 2002 and 2003 products do not require activation.   They can be installed on multiple units (although that violates the user agreement) and work just fine-all receiving updates for a year.  After that, they can be  uninstalled and then reinstalled for another year of updates...year after year.  For free.   If you go on Ebay you can find people actually selling these for cheap with a LIFETIME of free norton updates.  Lets face it, back in the days before activation many people abused the EULA which is why activation came into being.  This is no secret to norton...they know how many active subscriptions they have and how many updates are being distributed and I would think the numbers are vastly different.  Although handled extemely poorly, this "accidental" virusdef update will allow norton to shut the door on this lost revenue one way or another.  Of course they want to retain us as paying customers hence the coupons.  But the only people they actually owe ANYTHING to legally are the ones with unfinished active subscriptions.  If they offered to refund those (and only those) people their purchase price for the subscription,  then they are off the hook.  For the rest of us, they owe us nothing other than goodwill.   They are under no obligation to support these older products this long-although we DO own them.  In their eyes, this coupon is plenty of goodwill.    Unfortunately for most, this is most unsatisfactory.   NORTOFF

[Quietleaf]

(keeping this post short as my Palm Pre does NOT handle this editor window well at all)...being new to the forum iI'm surprised that it hasn't been discussed somewhere already, as it's an old issue. My $0.02 (maybe $0.05) are that it should occur somewhere, but if it gets too long it should go in it's own thread so as not to side-track the technical issue. That said, there are other corner cases, such as discarding old hardware and upgrading to new hardware, switching from hardware that came with something else (e.g. Mcafee) or trying a different AV and just not liking it. NAV and NSW don't enforce these cases so is it really the user's fault if the subscription resets? I think it depends on the eulam but my guess is that the terms are such that none of that is strictly verboten. ii even doubt that uninstalling and reinstalling, though blatantly abusive, are even strictly forbidden, though I haven't looked at it recently. Today it would be a non-issue, but in 2003 the entire industry was figuring out the bounds of eulas and I wouldn't be surprised to see legal loopholes. That's probably the reason why, from what others are saying, the eulas changed over the years.

(please excuse any typos...the page keps shifting to the upper left corner on every keystroke, so I can't see what I'm typing, and scrolling in the editor window doesn't work on the Pre browser).

[barryware]

Not to get even more off topic but uninstalling and reinstalling the software does not renew you subscription. Trying to rectify this on a couple of my clients computers, I did uninstall & reinstall (their software) and the sub status did not change after "confirming subscription status" was shown.

[ziimster]

I just wanted to confirm.. I removed the current definitions, and installed defs from 5/9 and everything is working back to normal.  I hope Norton resolves this issue soon.  I spent a lot of time on this issue prior to finding this forum.  Thanks to all that found this solution.

[Quietleaf]

True, that doesn't help. I don't want to see this go off topic either. The only point I was trying to make is that there are legitimate reasons to reinstall.

Go from Win98 to Win2k, Win2k to WinXP, wtc.
New hardware
Hardware upgrade (e.g. New hard drive, switch from FAT32 to NTFS, etc.)
Hosed system, reinstall Windows (like THAT never happens...my NIS 2003 CD sat on my shelf for years because it once gave me endless BSODs as soon as I installed it)

[Egads Regular Contributor]

I just got a call from my mom that her nortons was having the same autoprotect error. shes runnning an OLD nortons on an old OS.

edit-- oh man, i read this whole thread. dudes, you are kinda crazy-- my mom is 70 and usues dialup, whats your excuse!?!?!?!?!?! just googled and found this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/support/endofsupport.mspx this doucment FOUR YEARS OLD!!!! going to dell out let for a referbished computer with vista pre-loaded. CHEAP, yall.

[whiplash]

lolol!!

Okay I can kinda understand sorta. some of you are mad because your product stopped working. your REALLY OLD PRODUCT! and i see that most of you are running operating systems that are so old that even MS doesnt support them anymore. why do you think that nortons should still support them? i see that nortons are trying to help move people to newer versions which makes sense. its not their fault that you run an old outdated operating system. im glad that they don't support windows 98 if it means they support windows 7 (even though 98 seems never than 7 because its a bigger number - ROFL!!!!!!) nortons can't keep supporting older versions forever. at least they lasted longer then Microsoft who stopped supporting those oses like 5 years ago.

i know that it sucks for some people to know that with technology you do have to eventually invest in your computer to update it (at least once every 10 years guys!!!!)

do yourself a favor and update! this isn't like a car that you can buy and keep forever. its a computer and it will keep evolving and so will whatever you use. oh wait but it is because you have to keep putting money in to your car for new brakes new gas new oil and new operating system.. oh wait.... i can't imagine what browsers youre all using on your computers. what is it like internet explorter 4!? I thin kthe whole internet stopped supporting your computers.

this might just be where you wake up and say (oh hai - I need to udpate my computer now because I've had this one before Y2K (remenbevr that ? I kind of do).

okay - but I'll play fair because I don't want to take sides.

hay nortons! I'm mad at you! I want you to support my OS now or I'm going to someone else. oh btw im on D.O.S. 6.22!!!! (sarcastic of course because I love you nortons! )