Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[north450]

Is there a way to turn off  Scheduled Scans in nis 2011 and 2012.

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi north450:

If you're referring to the background Norton tasks that run during idle mode like Idle Full System Scans (see Performance | Norton Tasks for a list), all tasks except Idle Quick Scans and the Norton Insight task can be re-configured and/or disabled.  Please see my post here in PatrickMcCabe's thread Is Norton Slowing Down My Computer? for a list of settings that control most of these background tasks.

See Symantec employee michaell's post here about the new Metered Bandwidth feature in NIS 2012 that can be set to "Critical Updates Only" or "No Traffic" to control how some of these tasks run during system idles.

Customized scans scheduled by the user can be edited or deleted at Scan Now | Custom Scan.

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 8.0.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[north450]

Thanks

Is there anyway to shut off norton completely so thay it does nothing,

Also which version  2012  or  2011 do you have more control over.

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi north450:

There is a feature called Silent Mode that will turn off idletime background tasks for a selected period of time - the easiest way is to right-click on the Norton icon in your desktop system tray (taskbar) and choose Turn on Silent Mode - but this will not suspend your real-time anti-virus (AV) protection or NIS  firewall.  Your real-time AV and firewall have to be disabled separately and unfortunately there is no one button or setting that will temporarily suspend all NIS protection.

There is also a feature in NIS called Quiet Mode that automatically turns off background tasks when tasks that require high utilization of system resources is detected (e.g., burning of optical disks), and NIS can be configured to start Quiet Mode when a specific program starts running on your computer (Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Silent Mode Settings | Quiet Mode Detection Of | User-Specified Programs | Configure).

I haven't upgraded to NIS 2012 yet, but I would have to say that the new Metered Bandwidth feature in NIS 2012 (see michaell's post here) offers slightly better control of these background tasks than NIS 2011.  As far as I know, the major difference between background tasks in NIS 2011 and NIS 2012 is that Idle Quick Scans in NIS 2012 scan more files and take more time to complete than they do in NIS 2011 (see my comments here).

You might also be interested in reading Symantec employee ViralM's post here titled What's New in Norton Internet Security 2012 for more information on the new features in NIS 2012.

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 8.0.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[north450]

Thanks for an excellent post

One more question

If you download a file and you know its a false postive how do you make sure its not deleted

or put in quarantine.

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi north450:

The first thing I would do is to run a manual update for the trust ratings for your applications by clicking the Refresh button in the Application Ratings window (Performance | Application Ratings).  This task is normally performed automatically by the background Norton Insight task but if this task hasn't run recently it's possible that that Download Insight or File Insight doesn't recognize the file's digitial signature or trust its reputation and will automatically move it into quarintine.

If updating your Application Ratings doesn't fix the problem I would file a False Positive Report (see instructions here) and then wait a day or two for Symantec to test the file and deliver an updated whitelist via LiveUpdate so your file isn't flagged as malware and can be safely downloaded and/or installed.

If you're in a rush and you're absolutely sure the file is safe you can create a scan exclusion in your NIS settings.  Please see Administrator Tony Weiss' post here titled Clarification on WS.Reputation.1 Detection for information on how to recover quarantined files and create AutoProtect exclusions for your file in your settings (Settings | Computer Settings | AntiVirus and SONAR Exclusions). 

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 8.0.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[north450]

http://uk.norton.com/theme.jsp?themeid=svchost_exe

What happened?
On April 21, 2010, McAfee released a virus signature that incorrectly identified a core Windows operating system file called SVCHOST.EXE as a threat. When McAfee's products incorrectly detect SVCHOST.EXE as malware, the file may be deleted from the computer or quarantined, but without access to this critical operating system file, Windows fails to load properly and can cause significant system instability. For example, when this occurs Windows may shut down the computer and when the user attempts to re-start, the machine may become completely inoperable.

If Norton does not give an option to ignore its possible that NIS can do the same as McAfee.

Norton is far superior to McAfee but mistakes can happen.

How do you prevent this from happening.

Thanks

[dickevans Super RootKit Eradicator]

Hi,

You asked "How do you prevent this from happening." The only way I know to eliminate mistakes is to eliminate the humans involved.

We all do our best and ask others to assist but it happens and we then work to clean up and correct.

Best answer I can provide - I'm only human

[north450]

Thanks

Is there anyway to set up norton in interactive mode where they give you an option

to ignore (do nothing) delete or quarantine.

For an experienced user that might be an solution.

An exe does not open automatically.

It can be runned with sandboxie.

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

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north450 wrote:

How do you prevent this from happening.

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The best solution is to use disk imaging backup software (or the built-in functionality in Windows 7) to create saved images of your entire system that you can store on an external hard drive.  You can then recover quickly from any calamity.  The McAfee issue is not the only sort of disaster that can befall your computer, nor is it the most likely.  With a recent backup image you can recover from almost anything - without it, your data is at risk from many, many possible things that can, and do, occasionally go wrong.