Hi all. I can't believe we haven't found a solution to this yet. It looks as if Norton has not even bothered with it.
Pete
The solution is that I found was to clean your hard drive and reinstall WinXP with SP2. At rhis point install Norton Antivirus. After NAV is fully installed and updated you can proceed to install SP3 and the rest of your software.
I have tried everything else before a reformat and even though it was giving a false reading about the firewall and/or NAV being off it became annoying to me and also a few others. 
So if you haven't reformatted in a while back up your data and go for it!
It only wastes a full day of productivity.
Iggy in the cool part of Desert.
It started on my system once I installed SP1. I’m running Vista Ultimate on that machine. My wife and I have laptops running Vista Home Premium SP1. It did not occur on either laptop. I uninstalled and re-installed 2008 and the problem went away.
Funny thing was that after I uninstalled I went and looked at Windows firewall and it said that ZoneAlarm was turned off. Zonealarm was installed on the system before NIS2008. I did do an uninstall of ZA V7. Never went back to look at it again once I reinstalled the product. Looking now it just tells me that the windows firewall is turned off - nothing about NIS being on.
Message Edited by 10ACTony on 09-27-2008 08:13 AM
I have followed all of this long thread since I woke up this morning. All I can say is OMG!
Here are my major concerns.
1. Those photos of the Norton pop-ups do not look like any Norton displays I have ever seen. They are standard font, written plainly in the kind of English one sees in bad imitations by viruses. I waited to see if any Symantec staff would weigh in, but I think they are sleeping late this weekend.
Has anyone else ever seen messages like those?
Is it possible that a virus is producing them?
All of the behavior described is potentially viral.
2. The extreme reluctance to avoid SP3 on XP machines and SP1 on Vista machines.
This is a superstitious behavior at this point (worse than even those who are still dodging NIS2009 - at least here there is the valid point NIS2009 is still new).
I have installed XP SP3 or Vista SP1 on every single machine I have worked with, both at home and for clients. Without exception, there has not been a single problem.
When my wife's machine crashed during an unsupervised defragmentation (don't ask how - it's embarrassing), we lost some vital sectors and I decided to reformat and reinstall. I used the following routine, which was so successful I have now used it for every machine I service.
a. After reinstallation of base system and activation, I immediately launch Windows Update. It may take two to three attempts, but as soon as it is offered, I download the latest SP for the product.
b. After the latest SP is on board, I keep on with Windows Update until every critical and most recommended updates) have been installed. In particular, I want all framework files and updates installed.
c. I then install the antivirus/firewall program I am using (with one exception, these have all been Norton products).
d. I then install remaining software packages that the client needs.
The behavior of all these machines have been impeccable. The only machine I haven't done this to is my own. I am merely waiting to complete this round of beta testing. 
What I have seen is a LARGE reduction in space usage. All those previous installations, uninstallations, reinstallations left before numerous artifacts in the file structure and in the registry. Some were obvious and I had already found them and cleaned them out with various registry cleaners. Others, however, were woven into the fabric of the registry and I could not comfortably remove them without risking damage (have you ever used WinDoctor, fixed all the problems, immediately scanned and found a host more as a result of those fixes? that's the kind of problem that can exist and you need to be wary of). I have found about a 20% savings in space after restoring a system exactly. In these days of supersized HD's, it is not the space savings that is so important as the computational improvement signified. All those extra entries and deadends on the computer each is a potential bottleneck in computer speed and a possible source of intermittent and inexplicable crashes.
If you wait to install the lastest service pack, you are wasting the wonderful opportunity provided by a reinstallation. All that unnecessary garbage will be dumped right back on the computer and by the time you do update to the latest service pack, you will be right back to the kind of junk-in-place that led to the problems in the first place.
There is a lot of junk software out there: Most of it well-intentioned programs by wannabe programmers who don't have the background to truly understand the impact their software has on other products. Even well-established firms have their programming issues, hence the need for extensive beta testing. The thing is, once some of that junk software has been installed, it may make changes that create booby-traps for later installations. Best practice is install best and safest software first -- hence the strategy I follow.
3. The abundance of superstitious behavior in resolving a lot of these issues. I am just waiting for someone to post the suggestion that all system modifications be made between 1:26 am and 5:41 am on Tuesdays or Wednesdays because that's when they made their modifications and they have never had a problem; and because that's when the internet is least busy and so traffic causes no problems and ....
OMG!!!!
Which is NOT to minimize all the valuable suggestions that have been made here. I have picked up a number of great suggestions that I have now made part of my arsenal -- but those are suggestions that are supported by behavior and common sense.
What many of these suggestions dodge is how in the heck did this problem come about to start with. Blessed are those who begin their queries with the reasonable questions of what versions of this or that do you have, what other products are installed, did you remember to follow this procedure, etc. If the root cause is not solved, the problem will likely recur. Worse, something fundamentally bad may be taking place, something that is masked by a temporary fix but which is continuing to do damage. (BTW, I think it is their attempts to discover what is truly happening that takes the Symantec staff so long to get back to us - yes, they are happy for us that we find a workaround, but they know that something deeper must be dealt with).
4. Forcing the incompatible to be compatible. I am stunned at the attempts to force two pieces of conflicting software to coexist. How in the world can it matter so much that so much effort is put into so dubious a policy?! If ZoneAlarm doesn't want to work with Norton, then respect the differences and make your choice. There are other products out there that can work in comfortable tandem with either one of these. Use ZoneAlarm and something else instead of Norton. Or use Norton and something else instead of ZoneAlarm.
What people are missing when they THINK they have gotten these two pieces of software to work together is that they have only managed to stop the crashes from occuring. A crash in Mother Nature's way to say "THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG HERE!" When you prevent the crash, you only know for sure that you have prevented the message; not that you have fixed the underlying problems. That's like using a narcotic to mask the pain of a broken foot and then saying, "okay, now I'm ready for a marathon."
Message Edited by mijcar on 09-27-2008 09:57 AM
1 Like
Well I am done with this. Here is what I decided to do:
-I image my harddrive at certain points...so I wiped my drive and reinstalled the last image I had before loading NIS2008
-I did all my updates and decided to load the SP1 for Vista (Premium)
-I got all of my programs and data just like I had them before and then re-imaged my drive (just in case)
-I thought about retrying NIS2008 but then decided I was just going to reload my old NIS2007 disk and then do all of the updates but then I saw that NIS2009 was out and decided to take a risk and load that instead using my same license...big gamble...but it worked.
So far, I actually like NIS2009. Not just because of the lack of the issues we have been having with NIS2008, but I like the interface and how it reacts. What I miss from NIS2007 (and what 2008 & 2009 lack) is that you cannot right-click the icon in the taskbar and "stop all traffic" - but I just disable my NIC card to accomplish basically the same thing.
I am not happy at all how the NIS2008 issue was never resolved - but for now I am ok with NIS2009. Symantec still needs to resolve this issue as many are still using NIS2008 - and they need to regain some confidence back from their consumer base.
tr wrote:
What I miss from NIS2007 (and what 2008 & 2009 lack) is that you cannot right-click the icon in the taskbar and "stop all traffic" - but I just disable my NIC card to accomplish basically the same thing.
tr, I'm glad that everything is working for you now. As a small note, the 2009 product does have the ability to stop all traffic but it's no longer available from the tray icon. It's found under Internet Settings -> Smart Firewall Advanced Settings Configure -> Block All Network Traffic .
Very EASY but time consuming fix for this (Dont rely on Symantec.... they wont fix it!)
Un-install your NIS 200x product.
Restart your PC.
Run the Norton Removal tool (http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039)
Run something like RegCrawler and search / remove ALL instances of NORTON
Run something like RegCrawler and search / remove ALL instances of SYMANTEC (you cant remove them all)
Restart your PC
Re-Run NIS Installation
Have done this more than a dozen times now (with or without SP3 for XP) Works 100%
Paul
I had the same erroneous error message po-up on the mutha-in-law's computer. Vista SP1, running Norton AntiVirus 2007 (believe it or not)
I downloaded the Norton Removal Tool for the appropriate prouct http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 and ran the utility.
Upon completion of the software removal, the Norton utility opened a web page that advised me I was eligible for a free upgrade to Norton AV 2009 with my current CD key and expiring with the same subscription date as before.
I D/L'd the new software, installed it, ran live update. Re-booted the computer for safe measure, logged in.
Problem resolved.
Symantec ROCKS! thanks
I rinally gave up and totally uninstalled.
I’m now running McAfee Suite and I’m very happy
Thanks, iggy, for your original problem posting. It really helped me find a solution I was looking for.
Is it Windows or Norton talking?