Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[crisoco8722]

I do not wish to have Norton IPS 1.0 & Norton Toolbar 3.7.2 enabled in Firefox 3.6 so I have disabled both of them.

Why does Norton keep re-enabling them at each re-boot?

Please tell me how to stop Norton doing this without having to disable each one and re-start Firefox at each boot up.

If any Firefox Add-on is disabled then that is how it should stay!

[crisoco8722]

I just cannot believe that Norton was unable to help me out with this one.

I have now upgraded from NIS 2009 to NIS 2010 see if this will help.

No it does not and to make matters worse the new version 2 add-ons are conflicting with other add-ons in Firefox 3.6 and as I found previously too many false positives are also being created.

When Firefox loads the result of Norton enabling IPS & Toolbar is some of my other add-ons become disabled and have to re-enabled and Firefox re-loaded again before I can start using Firefox.

This is happening each time I re-boot the computer.

I am so fed up with the lack of help and response on this matter that I have had to take my own steps to remedy the situation.

I have disabled both the IPS and Toolbar and closed Firefox.

Then I have had to locate .......

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\User Profile Name\extensions.rdf

and then remove these 2 add-ons (IPS & toolbar) by editing the extensions.rdf file in WordPad.

Finally I have had to change the extensions.rdf file to Read Only so Norton does not change my settings back on re-boot.

I ask you. What a performance, and all because Norton does not set up the Add-ons correctly in Firefox 3.6

If I set the Add-ons to disabled then that is how they should stay.

It also makes it more awkward for myself should I need to edit any add-ons.

I have set up a shortcut to the Firefox profile folder so that the extensions.rdf Read Only box can be unchecked when needed.

I have never seen anything so crazy. It's a wonder that Firefox allows Norton to add files to its browser in this way.

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

Hi criscoco8722,

I do not believe that Toolbar 3.7.2 and IPS 1.0 are compatible with Firefox 3.6.  I am still running Firefox 3.5 and I am showing Toolbar 4.5 and IPS 2.0 installed.  I disabled the toolbar and rebooted and it stayed disabled, so the issue is evidently local to your system.  It could be something in your Firefox profile but almost certainly the problem is that the add-ons you have are incompatible with the browser version you are using.  What version of NIS are you running?

[mo]

I have FF3.6 but IPS 2.0 and toolbar 4.5 I don't have any extra add ons to cause conflict.

[crisoco8722]

Thanks SendOfJive & mo for your support.

The problem I was having with the IPS and Toolbar Add-ons was not so much one of compatibility but Norton 'messing up' the extensions.rdf file after re-boot. It couldn't have been 'incompatibility' because re-enabling (if that was what I did - I cannot remember now) all the add-ons that Norton had disabled and then re-starting Firefox put all the Add-ons running normally again. If something had been incompatible that issue would have been carried forward after re-loading Firefox.

I have 22 add-ons and the Firefox profile works perfectly and has done so for a long time now.

It was only when Norton made the IPS & Toolbar Add-ons compatible with Firefox 3.6 that the problem started.

This is why I have no option but to take drastic steps to stop Norton over-riding my settings by locking the extension.rdf file. So far it is working fine and it is actually a pleasure to not have Norton causing any more issues for me.

The problem is not just local to my computer but to Firefox because Norton Add-ons in Internet Explorer 8 remain disabled after re-booting the computer. It is only Norton that is causing the issue and only in Firefox 3.6.

All my Add-ons are compatible with my browser and do not conflict with one another. Firefox would not have allowed any Add-on to be added in the first place if they were not compatible. How Norton can actually make about 8 of my already 'compatible' Add-ons incompatible when loading Firefox takes some believing. 

My operating system is Windows XP Home.

I originally had NIS 2009 with the Add-ons to go with that.

I have Firefox 3.6 which all works perfectly without the Norton IPS and Toolbar.

I have now removed NIS 2009 and upgraded to NIS 2010 (with the new IPS & Toolbar Add-ons removed completely from Firefox).

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

Hi criscoco8722,

There have been instances in the past where new Norton add-ons have caused other extensions to stop working.  One of the solutions which seems to often work is to delete the Firefox extension configuration files and allow Firefox to recreate them to eliminate any corruption in the files.

The issue you describe is not typical of how the Norton add-ons should be behaving, and you should not have to make manual configuration changes to these Firefox files in order to work around this.  If you did not try letting Firefox recreate the extension files prior to your tweaks, you might want to give it a go by following these instructions:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Unable+to+install+add-ons?bl=n&s=.rdf&as=q#Corrupt_extension_fil...

[crisoco8722]

Hello SendOfJive

Thank you for the link.

The problem I have is not quite like the issue you describe. In my case it only seems to affect the initial start up of Firefox after re-booting the computer. Re-starting Firefox again then resolves the issue. I would have thought that if the Firefox configuration files had become corrupted this would have given the same problem after re-loading Firefox as it did when re-booting the computer.

However, I will have a go at deleting these Firefox files this weekend using the instructions in the link you provided and see if this resolves the issue.

    *  extensions.ini
    * extensions.cache
    * extensions.rdf

I will report back with the result.

[jebear]

I am experiencing the exact same issues with Firefox and several extensions. I have spent 3 hours over the last day and evening trying to fix. I have even re-installed Firefox (deleting my profile) and once I start to add extensions the behaviour returns.

I have ruled out recent installs like Open Office and Java updates, and narrowed it down to a Norton issue (NIS2010). It is very frustrating and I will wait to see if updates to Norton over the next couple of days fix the issue. I even managed to remove Norton IPS 1.0 from addons by manually editing the Norton file placed in the Extensions folder and setting it to read-only. The toolbar is still present.

Norton is disabling 5 of my extensions (including the dictionary) on reboot and not remembering when I set the Norton Toolbar extension to "disabled". It is nice to know that this is not isolated to a single machine's configuration.

Regards

jebear

[jebear]

Renaming these files in my profile did not work in my case:

    *  extensions.ini
    * extensions.cache
    * extensions.rdf

Jebear

[crisoco8722]

Hello jebear

I too am also pleased that I am not alone with this issue.

I am also pleased that you have reported back that deleting the Firefox configuration files was not a solution.

I will not bother testing this out now and keep with my own solution until Norton can fix it.

At least by manually removing the IPS & Toolbar Add-ons & setting the extensions.rdf file to Read Only stops all this happening for the time-being.

It doesn't bother me not having these Add-ons because of the  false positives IPS produces so I am happy to continue with this workaround, but others who want these Add-ons may not be happy with this because you would never know when the problem has been rectified. Symantec / Norton are unlikely to keep the community informed on these matters.

Thanks again jebear.