Longish story, I'll try to keep it short:
HP Laptop running Vista Home Premium SP1, most recent patches and updates as of today. Never had any problems with this machine at all, ever.
Purchased in June 2008, new out of box at retailer. Laptop came with NIS 2008 pre-installed, 30-day complimentary version. After 30 days, I extended the subscription for one year, which meant that subscription had an expiration date in July 2009.
On 11/20/08, NIS 2008 mysteriously reported that my subsciption was "out of date" and had expired. Long story short, I managed to find the "chat with technical service rep" link on the Symantec site. After three hours, the tech couldn't figure out why my software was erroneously reporting a lapsed subscription (my account clearly showed it was valid and current). Tech suggested uninstalling NIS 2008, updating it with 2009, and did so. In the process, to compensate me for the trouble, he extended my subscription to November 2009.
All was well and I was using NIS 2009 until 12/31/08. I sometimes don't turn off the laptop and instead allow it to go into hibernation mode....yeah, I know that's not something I should do, but I've never had a problem previously. When I left the house that morning, I simply shut the lid, put it in the case and anticipated opening and connecting again when I got to the office. That didn't happen, and I left the computer in the case most of the rest of the day. When I got back home, I opened up the computer, plugged it into the wall outlet and lifted the lid. The "resuming windows" screen came on, but for some reason, Windows Explorer (and the taskbar) failed to restore. I rebooted, and at that point, all appeared normal except that my NIS 2009 icon which usually resides in the taskbar was missing. I rebooted again, thinking that maybe that would fix the issue with NIS 09 missing icon.
After rebooting the second time, NIS 09 icon in taskbar was still missing. I tried to click on the NIS 09 icon on the desktop. Nothing. I went to "Programs" and clicked on NIS... again nothing. I then loaded msconfig, to see whether all of the usual Norton stuff which is set to load was listed and all of the usual Symantec stuff that had been set to load and which had been listed under the "Startup" tab was gone. I don't mean that it was unchecked, I mean gone.
To make a long story longer, I spent the next 3 hours (yeah it was New Year's Eve) in a very frustrating "chat" with a Symantec tech from India. We ran Norton Removal tool. Then tried to install NIS 2009 again. The install hung at the very end just after loading the drivers. At that point, whatever NIS was installing, it broke my TCP/IP networking and NIS couldn't communicate with the Symantec servers and thus wouldn't complete the install. After a while (like 15 minutes) with the installer displaying "10 seconds remaining" a "One-Click Support" box popped up, and it also hung because it couldn't establish any connectivity with the Symantec servers. The box would disappear after about 15 minutes, then pop up again, make one more try to connect with "One-Click Support" and it would then abort.
That's as far as we got during three separate tries in 3 hours of tech support chat. The tech finally suggested that this connectivity issue was a "known problem" and that there would be a fix "soon" and that in the meantime, I should just go back to using NIS 2008. I tried to explain that I'd been using 2009 for 2 months without problem, but he still said to go back to NIS 2008.
So, we reinstalled NIS 2008 and amazingly it worked and did not hang, did not break internet connectivity or disable TCP/IP at all.
After getting off the chat with Tech support guy, I then figured if 2008 was working, I might be able to get 2009 working. I ran the removal tool again. I also ran another file the Tech guy had downloaded to my desktop called "Clean Download" . I then rebooted. Then downloaded NIS2009 again to be sure I got a clean file. Ran it again. Same problem. Install hung and would not proceed beyond "10 seconds remaining" which popped up just after the drivers for 2009 were installed. Same routine as before, i.e.., "One-Click Support" box showing up and no connectivity.
Ran removal tool again. Installed 2008, and it worked, so I left it alone and kept 2008 installed.
On Jan 1, 2009, I again contacted Tech Support, this time got "Jagdeesh" and chatted with him again for 3 hours while he also tried uninstalling 2008, running removal tool, and tried to install 2009 again, all to no avail.
So, NIS 2009 which had been working for 2 months on my machine now will not install and breaks all networking when I try to install it. I've verified the lack of connectivity by loading up IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Thunderbird e-mail client, FTP, and it doesn't matter what I use: When NIS 2009 install gets to a certain point, it blocks or breaks all internet activity, which also prevents NIS 2009 from installing completely. Uninstall NIS 2009's failed install and amazingly all internet connectivity is restored.
Anyone got any suggestions? I know I didn't install anything which would have blocked NIS 2009 that I know of between the time I closed the lid of my laptop the morning of 12/31 and later that day when NIS 2009 was missing. The only thing I did install (and then later uninstalled) was a trial version of Kaspersky AV (because I was so frustrated with this stupid NIS 2008/2009 issue that during one of the uninstalls, I thought I'd try something else). I later uninstalled Kasperksy AV and went back to NIS 2008.
So, I'm still now running NIS 2008 (all is well with that and no problems), and I still cannot upgrade it back to NIS 2009.
I'd like to run the new version of NIS. I had previously run it on this laptop and it was quicker, less trouble (until now) and worked fine. I've spent a total of 9 hours with three different Symantec Tech guys, and none of these three guys (all in India I presume) have any idea what they are doing besides simply following a checklist. The othe frustrating thing is that while they were remotely accessing my machine, they were also helping others (they admitted this to me) and that greatly lengthened the wait time during these "support" sessions.
Anyone else out there who has experienced an inability to install NIS 2009 similar to what I've experienced?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.