I have had Norton Antivirus installed since December 2011. Downloaded the new product update in May or thereabouts.
I've noticed over the past four days, since 5 September, on each day Live Update running automatically downloads a large Smart Virus Definitions file. On three of the days including today it downloaded 114MB. On the other day it tried but failed to download 114MB.
In the meantime I have set my Network Cost Awareness to Economy to limit the bandwidth usage. At this rate 4GB of my monthly 5GB of data allocation will go to Norton's virus updates.
This is somewhat excessive and I'd like to know why it's behaving like that and how to fix it.
it could be that your virus definitions could be corrupt. Normally I would suggest running the Norton Remove & Reinstall Tool to clean up your installation, but as v21 has recently been released I would suggest you upgrade to that. You can upgrade for free as long as your subscription is current.
You can go to http://updatecenter.norton.com/ and click the big yellow button "Update Me Now" and follow the instructions. Remember to run Live Update, restarting where required, until no more updates are available.
I read the link you provided but my problem isn't presenting the same as in the OP's case. I don't have a fix in progress and most frequently my downloads complete. I did check my time, date and time zone though and all is well. Thanks for weighing in.
Do you have the option for Automatic Download of New Version set to ON? I'm not sure about NAV, but in my NIS v. 20.x (NIS 2013) the setting is located at Settings | Computer | Updates.
Symantec released the new NAV 21.x (a.k.a. NAV 2014) on 04-Sep-2013 (see Tim Weiss' announcement here) so it's possible that NAV is trying to update to the latest version via Automatic LiveUpdate. If you attempt to cancel the large download before it's completed (or throttle the download with Network Cost Awareness), LiveUpdate will likely just re-start the download until it goes to completion.
Have you noticed any change in your NAV version number at Support | About since September 5th?
------------ MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 23.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Until earlier today I did have Automatic Download of New Version set to ON. But I turned it off to conserve data use. After midnight tonight (in about 5 hours from now) I have some free bandwidth and I intend doing the update then.
I cannot tell you whether my version number has changed since the 4th or 5th September, but as at this moment it's still at 20.4.0.40.
I know it's not a number of failed update attempts that have been eating up my data because I've looked in the history log and the specific processes and the relevant download size for each are listed clearly. For instance the downloads yesterday soon after turning on my machine for the day were:
One thing that you might keep in mind is that when the program tries to repair itself it may call for a download of 110+MB. The shotgun approach. I've seen it several times when an automatic update ran during high traffic times.
I cannot tell you whether my version number has changed since the 4th or 5th September, but as at this moment it's still at 20.4.0.40.
The last time prior to 5 September when a 110MB Smart Def download occurred was on 29 August 2013.
I agree with Krusty13 that an update to NAV v. 21.0.1.3 (NAV 2014) would be the best approach at this point. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you don't require a more aggressive clean re-install with the Norton Removal Tool to fix the the problem.
In the mean time, you might want to read hvgsel's comments here to someone who was having a similar problem. The fact that the full set of Smart Definitions tried to download in August (i.e., prior to the official release of NAV v. 21.x) points to a problem with a corrupted installation of your current NAV v. 20.4.0.40 (NAV 2013) virus definitons.
------------ MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 23.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
In the mean time, you might want to read hvgsel's comments here to someone who was having a similar problem. The fact that the full set of Smart Definitions tried to download in August (i.e., prior to the official release of NAV v. 21.x) points to a problem with a corrupted installation of your current NAV v. 20.4.0.40 (NAV 2013) virus definitons.
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Thanks for the link. I had dial-up (56K modem) as recently as December last year so I know exactly the pain and frustration of the OP. Fortunately I'm now on 1Mbps ADSL which, I accept, doesn't mean the download will be perfect every time.
Just to point out: the full set of Smart Definitions didn't try to download in August, it did successfully download. I don't understand the significance of your reference to the fact that it was prior to the official NAV v21.x release. These large Smart Definition files have been downloading as far back as May this year (that's as far back as my history file goes), but just not on a daily basis as it's doing now
I don't understand the significance of your reference to the fact that it was prior to the official NAV v21.x release. These large Smart Definition files have been downloading as far back as May this year(that's as far back as my history file goes), but just not on a daily basis as it's doing now.
Sorry for the confusion. I only meant that since these large 100 MB+ Smart Definition files were occuring prior to 04-Sep-2013 (the official relesase date of NAV v. 21.x), my original theory in message # 6 that this could have been triggered by an automatic upgrade to NAV v. 21.x must be wrong.
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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 23.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
I have been trying to download the update manually but each time the actual download isn't Norton Antivirus, it's Norton 360 - a product I don't have.
I've done this two ways: 1) clicked on Support, then New Version Check. It finds that I need a NAV update and I click on the download button. It downloads a 998KB file called NAVDownloader.exe. I double click that when done and it fires up the download, but it's called Norton 360 so I pause it and X it. 2) I browsed to the Norton Update Centre, click on "Update Me Now' which downloads the file AutoDetectPkg.exe. I run that, and it sees I need a Norton Antivirus update. It (again) downloads the file NAVDownloader.exe, overwriting the one I downloaded earlier. When done I double-click that file and it starts downloading Norton 360 (again).
What's happening here and how am I supposed to get the update?
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Edit: Nevermind, I found a third way which is now working. Browsed to Norton Update Centre again, then chose manually what product I wanted to be updated (Norton Antivirus, version 20). It downloaded (again) NAVDownloader.exe, overwriting the previous one. I double clicked the file and what do you know, this time the download is actually Norton Antivirus. It's going to take a little while at 1Mbps.
it could be that your virus definitions could be corrupt. Normally I would suggest running the Norton Remove & Reinstall Tool to clean up your installation, but as v21 has recently been released I would suggest you upgrade to that. You can upgrade for free as long as your subscription is current.
You can go to http://updatecenter.norton.com/ and click the big yellow button "Update Me Now" and follow the instructions. Remember to run Live Update, restarting where required, until no more updates are available.
I read the link you provided but my problem isn't presenting the same as in the OP's case. I don't have a fix in progress and most frequently my downloads complete. I did check my time, date and time zone though and all is well. Thanks for weighing in.
Do you have the option for Automatic Download of New Version set to ON? I'm not sure about NAV, but in my NIS v. 20.x (NIS 2013) the setting is located at Settings | Computer | Updates.
Symantec released the new NAV 21.x (a.k.a. NAV 2014) on 04-Sep-2013 (see Tim Weiss' announcement here) so it's possible that NAV is trying to update to the latest version via Automatic LiveUpdate. If you attempt to cancel the large download before it's completed (or throttle the download with Network Cost Awareness), LiveUpdate will likely just re-start the download until it goes to completion.
Have you noticed any change in your NAV version number at Support | About since September 5th?
------------ MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 23.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40 HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Until earlier today I did have Automatic Download of New Version set to ON. But I turned it off to conserve data use. After midnight tonight (in about 5 hours from now) I have some free bandwidth and I intend doing the update then.
I cannot tell you whether my version number has changed since the 4th or 5th September, but as at this moment it's still at 20.4.0.40.
I know it's not a number of failed update attempts that have been eating up my data because I've looked in the history log and the specific processes and the relevant download size for each are listed clearly. For instance the downloads yesterday soon after turning on my machine for the day were:
