Last year (about 7 October 2009), after downloading Norton AntiVirus 2009 (I previously had NAV 2008), when the Norton Internet Security page came up, I got the message that the last virus definition update had taken place 221 days ago (i.e. 26/02/2009 1:00:00 AM). I had been running live update in NAV 2008 on a regular basis up to installing NAV 2009, so that came as a shock.
Likewise, up until yesterday (4 October 2010), the automatic / pulse updates had been running regularly in NAV 2009, saying the last virus definition update was 4 minutes ago (or whatever). In addition, every morning I would manually do a Run LiveUpdate, at which time usually 3 items downloaded.
So I was surprised once again to see when installing NIS 2010 this morning the message that the last virus definition update had taken place 214 days ago (04/03/2010 1:00:00 AM) when I had just manually run a Live Update only 15 minutes previously.
It just seemed very strange that in BOTH instances, new virus definitions seemed to be being downloaded for about 140 days without a problem, then all of a sudden stopped for the duration of the subscription.
I didn't download/install any new software either year, so I can't see it being a software interference issue, so why, two years in a row, would the product download virus definitions for the first third of the year, then stop all of a sudden for the remainder of the subscription?
That is if indeed they did stop being downloaded. I did / still do monitor the NAV periodically ever day and the pulse updates were / are happening every 4-7 minutes like clockwork.
Could this just be some glitch that happens with a new installation and the '200 days ago message' isn't accurate?
Is there a log of when and what definitions were downloaded?
I guess the issue is that I don't know which of the messages to believe: A) the counter on the Norton Internet Security page that keeps telling me the latest virus definition update was 4 minutes ago, or B) the message I get each year when renew my subscription of AntiVirus which says the latest definition update was c.200 days ago.
P.S.
After installing NIS 2010 and getting the last virus definition update 214 days ago message, I clicked on Run LiveUpdate and the following 15 items downloaded (42.99 MB worth):
2010 IPS Definitions (2x)
NIS Product Update (2x)
2010 Iron WhiteList
2010 AntiSpam Definitions
Consumer License
2010 Web Prot. Definitions
2010 Iron Settings
2010 Virus Definitions
2010 Submission Control Data
2010 Behavior & Security Heuristics
2010 Pulse Updates
2010 Web Protection Definitions (hub)
2010 Iron Revocation List