Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[mijcar]

I can't stand it!

Once every couple of days, it happens again.

I get one of those NIS pop-ups crowing something like "NIS has found and fixed threats to your computer.  Click here to see the threats."

It sounds so proud of itself -- as though it has singlehandedly averted World War III.

And once again I am suckered into it.  What might it have found this time?  A backdoor virus?  A trojan trying to swallow my system?  Did someone send me an attachment that attacks my computer simply on being downloaded?  Is there something dangerous left behind?   But this little self-satisfied useless app doesn't tell me a thing.  If I want to know more about this threat, I am simply going to have to "click here."

And so I do.  And then there is the wait while an entire another subroutine is launched and a new display comes up and finally (finally!) there it is:

Ta-ta!

Norton Internet Security has ...

Wait for it ...

Yes, ...

Here it comes ...

Yes, it has ...

Found and deleted ....

COOKIES!

 Oh, the horror of it!  Be still my heart.

I tremble with the danger I have barely dodged.

Thank you, Symantec!  Thank you, NIS!  Thank you, universe, for gracing my life with this product that has saved me from ... cookies!

And thinks I need to know about it the moment it happens.

I swear, were some other company to come up with a product that matched NIS in quickness and mostly low impact and did NOT give stupid messages about conquering cookies in fierce battle (or, at the very least, would distinguish between the horror of cookies and the real threats in the pop-up), I would switch my allegiance in a flash.

Message Edited by mijcar on 10-17-2009 03:51 PM

[metalhead82]

Lol, I know what you mean. Who gives a **** about cookies anyway?

[Tech83 Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi! Mijcar,

Try configuring your browser to allow first party cookies, block third party cookies, and always allow session cookies.  I have and enjoy the silence.

[mijcar]

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Tech83 wrote:

Hi! Mijcar,

Try configuring your browser to allow first party cookies, block third party cookies, and always allow session cookies.  I have and enjoy the silence.

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Sorry to sound so stupid, but how would I go about that?  I don't see many options related to cookies.

[metalhead82]

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Tech83 wrote:

Hi! Mijcar,

Try configuring your browser to allow first party cookies, block third party cookies, and always allow session cookies.  I have and enjoy the silence.

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I used to do that, but the problem with that approach is that it breaks some sites that use cookies from a different domain to identify you. Google being one of them. If you log in on google.co.uk, it uses a cookie from google.com, which is blocked as it is a 3rd party one so your login doesn't persist. It's a pain in the **** to put it bluntly and it's not just google that I have noticed that issue on.

I find that Javacools Spywareblaster is good at blacklisting the bad cookies and stopping them getting on your computer in the first place.

[Floating_Red]

It would be helpful to change the wording of this pop-up to: "Norton Internet Security has Detected and Resolved Tracking Cookies; Click Here for More Details."; this would avoid confusion among users when N.I.S. Detects Tracking Cookies.

Message Edited by Floating_Red on 10-17-2009 11:04 PM

Message Edited by Floating_Red on 10-17-2009 11:07 PM

[allsorts]

Thanks i enjoyed reading this, made me laugh out loud.

[Boofo]

If you use Opera, you can set it to delete cookies when you close the browser. That;'s how I have it set and I never see an NIS pop-up for evil cookies being deleted.

[elsewhere]

Do you still get the pop-ups if the 'Tracking Cookie Scan' setting is set to 'Remove'?

[mdoc7]

That reminds me... I need to go out and buy some cookies.  Munch!