It seems that when my kids bring their laptops up from Hibernation or Sleep more (or maybe even cold boot them) that I get an alert that "The Norton Safety Minder service is not running. This could be caused by a problem with the program, or else a user might have shut down the Norton Safety Minder service. Please restart the computer."
Just after that alert, in the OnlineFamily screens I can see that NSM was actually running and logging web sites visited and blocked. Indicating that NSM is indeed running and working.
Why are the alerts generated? Is there a "fix" for it or is it listed as a known issue?
All operating systems are Windows 7, we have some that are Home Premium and some that are Ultimate.
NSM is version 2.1.0.37 on all.
Norton Online Framework is 2.1.0.21
The "false" alert is posted when the computers are cold started and / or woken up. So this means the error doesn't seem to be related to power saving settings. It even occurs on a laptop that is set to High Performance with all settings left to be "full on" no sleeping.
Thanks for the update. We are trying to reproduce the issue. The monitoring function works correctly as it should. It seems to be a time issue when the alerts get sent out.
installed Norton Safety Minder about a week ago. this thing happened 3 times and also there was one time with different alert: 3/23/11 10:51 AM : Norton Safety Minder’s web browser monitoring component is either disconnected or disabled. Please restart the web browser or restart your computer i don’t know if these are fake alerts or not but i am very worried what is going on. i use windows xp pro sp3, NIS 2011, NSM 2.1.0.51. no sleep or hibernation. NSM working on one windows account for my daughter and the account is limited. would appreciate your help Yuval Nesher
I found the way to make these alerts, you won’t believe this! just go to the browser add-on management and disable the NSM plug-in, checked it in IE8 and FF3.6, but i must tell that the NSM was still working somehow… OK Norton developers this must be solved at once. how come a child on a limited windows account can disable the NSM plug-in? and i didn’t check to much what really happens when it’s disabled!
Hi Katie, thanks for your reply. so i understand it right from the thread you sent me to then when the add-on/plug-in of NSM is disabled there will be no tracking of social network activities? is it true to other browsers? Yuval
The product of Norton Online family was designed to encourage conversations and communication between parents and children. When you receive the alert "Norton Safety Minder's web browser monitoring component is either disconnected or disabled...", please check to see if the add-ons for Norton Safety Minder is disabled, if so, please talk with the child to see if he/she is aware of this or not.
Hi Katie I am a very old fan of Norton and i understand that Norton Online family was designed to encourage conversations and communication between parents and children, but Norton is very wrong about letting kids disable even partly the NSM. This is especially true considering young teens who are so anxious to surf the net and don’t agree with their parents trying to protect them from the evils in the net. I must say that all the parental control in Norton is deteriorating since many years and some how i really miss the old parental control i had in NIS 2009. It looks there is no other way for me but to look for better parental control software some place else. Any way, thank you for your help. Yuval
Thanks for sharing your thought with us. The program currently sends an alert to the parents when such action (Norton Safety Minder Add-ons is turned off) has taken place. As you can see from the previous thread, the feature of preventing a child to do so is on the product enhancement list for future implementation.
now i know for sure one of the reasons for those fake alerts. i open my computer and go strait to my account which is an administrator one and not monitored, then after that while checking the NOF account i find the known alert:" The Norton Safety Minder service is not running. This could be caused by a problem with the program, or else a user might have shut down the Norton Safety Minder service. Please restart the computer." but i know for sure i just opened the computer 30 minutes ago and that my kid didn’t use her monitored account. so it looks like NSM doesn’t like me to start the day on the computer with my non monitored account! :-)) Norton developers1 something to consider here… always glad to help Yuval
Thanks for the post. I have tested the issue by following the steps you indicated in your message, but unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce it.
1. After you received the alert that the NSM service was not running, did you get a chance to see if the Norton Safety Minder Add-ons is enabled or disabled? You can find it by clicking Tools -> Manage Add-ons in the IE browser if you use IE.
2. What is the Operating System of your PC?
3. Does it take a relatively long time to startup your PC?
Are you saying the false alerts are not false at all. That my child has disabled the safety minder. I don't think so. He does not know my password. Is it because he left his computer on, as always, then got back on it after an hour or so. I am very anxious about this
hi KatieQ the false alert happened again just now. the computer was closed about 5 hours. for the answers: 1. went to check my kid account and the NSM add on was enabled on IE8 and FF 3.6.17. 2.win xp pro sp3 3.it’s an old computer and i think it takes about 4 minutes to start up. here is the alert again: 5/3/11 3:42 AM : The Norton Safety Minder service is not running. This could be caused by a problem with the program, or else a user might have shut down the Norton Safety Minder service. Please restart the computer. [heads] thanks Yuval
Thanks for the update. I suspect you receive the message because it takes a relatively long time (4 minutes) for your PC to startup. This could happen because the program checks the product service on your PC and the service hasn't started yet when it normally should have started already.
gcapps,
This message could be sent out if a computer is very slow and takes a long time to startup . It's good that you keep your account password away from your child. Please also give your child's Windows account non-administrative rights.