Norton 360 VPN Problems

Archive
1

For the past 2 years Norton has had major problems with their "Secure VPN" service/function.

  1. When specifying VPN Region USA, you could get connected to another region Ex: Europe - Status Fixed
  2. When connecting to VPN Region USA, you could be connected to an AWS host anywhere in the USA.  This caused a problem with significant network latency. Ex: If you lived on the east coast and connected to an AWS host on the west coast.  Now you are connected to the closest AWS host. - Status Fixed 
  3. The Norton 360 app when connecting to the VPN would: 
    1. Cause the Norton 360 app to freeze and get a Windows Error message to close the app or wait for it to return - Status appears to be fixed.
    2. Cause the Norton 360 use all available memory, up to 99%, and cause windows to crash - Status assume to be fixed as of 10/18/22

Over the past 2 years I've brought all of these issues to Norton technical supports attention.  The only response I got form them was to reload the Norton 360 program, and no acknowledgment of any status of working on or resolving any of these issues.

However, congratulations to the Norton Software Development team on finally fixing all of these VPN issues after 2 years by ether dumb luck or some form of random trial and error, all without reporting any progress to their customers. 

 

 

2

If your only issue with the VPN is that you cannot connect to some sites, it is possible that what I noted above is what is happening. In this case, it is not specific to Norton but all VPN providers would be affected because it is the sites you are trying to access that are doing the blocking.

The only thing that can be suggested for this is to contact those web sites and see if their support can offer any suggestions for a work around.

You can also search for VPN providers that claim that they do not get blocked, and give them a try.

 

3

Yes, there is something Norton should do!! Because Secure VPN does not work all the time, Norton needs to tell customers about this. If Norton had other things that didn't work all the time, the customer base would shrink a bunch. All the other Norton software works all the time, but not Secure VPM, this is different and difficult for customers to figure out on their own. So, in my view, excellent software vendors communicate to their customers better, Norton fails in the case of Secure VPN. This issue was difficult to diagnose, as Geek Squad and Microsoft did not quickly discover why I could not access so many regular websites. So the problem with Secure VPN is not widely known. Norton needs to do much better at communicating when software does not work all the time and not have customers self discover issues like this by themselves. This issue and Norton's "it's not my fault" response may cause me to find another security vendor. Be accountable, get your "big boy pants on" and communicate to your valued customers your issues. 

4

Many web sites do not allow access from known VPN IP addresses. They do this for copyright, legal, security, and political reasons. There is nothing a VPN provider can or should do to circumvent these legal protections. 

 

5

I had issues with accessing websites using Microsoft Edge, after spending hours with Best Buy Geek Squad and Microsoft tech support, the problem was with secure VPN, once this was turned off. all was fine. And it also fixed several other problems with my HP printer using HP Smart and Microsoft 365 Outlook. Norton needs to fix this issue or let users know this problem is a big one for many people!! In the meantime, turn off Secure VPN.