Norton Family and Firefox 24.0

Hi. I used Norton Family for a while, but encountered problems when updating Firefox to version 24.0. Firefox won't even start and so I had to uninstall Norton Family from my computer (OS: Windows 8 64-bit). Why this is happening? I'd like to continue with Norton Family. Thank you in advance.

Hi Sepe,

 

The latest version of Norton Family 2.9.0.21 supports Firefox 24.0.  Can you please reinstall Norton Family on the PC to see if you are still experiencing the issue.  If yes, please let me know and we will work together to resolve the issue.

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

 

Hi,

The latest version of Norton Family, 2.9.21, really supports Firefox 24.0, but on my Windows 7 laptop when you try to close firefox itself, using the FILE menu option and/or simply trying to close the window, it hangs EVERY TIME

 

Using perfmon, and right-clicking "analyze waiting chain" on the hanged process, NF.exe turns out to be the culprit

if you uninstall safety minder, or you successfully disable the extension within firefox, all returns to normal, and firefox closes flawlessly

 

reinstalling firefox and/or safety minder does not solve

 

hope you fix it soon

thanks

Hi gliver,

 

Thanks for the information.  I've reported this to the team for further investigation.   I will keep you updated as soon as I get any news on this.

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

Hi and thank you. I reistalled Norton Family, as you suggested, but without help. The problem is, the process "firefox.exe" starts (it shows in the task manager), but nothing else happens. The browser won't start properly. I tried to disable NF but the problem still remains. So I had to to uninstall NF again.

Hi Sepe,

 

Thanks for the update.  Our team is able to reproduce the issue and currently working on this.  I'll keep you posted.

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

Thanks Katie,

I'll keep an eye on the forum for a solution and/or updates of the Safety Minder plugin

 

I have another problem to report about Firefox and Safety Minder, a problem that has been present at least from FF22 and its matching Safety Minder version:

you open up FF and browse OK

you close FF and all seems OK

BUT, if you open up the task manager, firefox.exe still appears in the process list, and it's "unkillable"

 

it's no big thing, but it's annoying

I noticed this 'cause CCleaner couldn't clean FF cache and always asked to terminate it (unsuccessfully)

 

The problem is not only of my own laptop (Win7 HOME x64), I saw the same on 2 other laptop (another Win7 HOME x64, and a Win7 Starter x32)

 

  bye

I have had similar problems in past week on FF23 and FF24.  I find it rather amazing that Norton says that FF24 works with NFS but then when a user reports a problem you say you can recreate it almost immediately?  Sounds like you don't have a great testing plan...  My challenge is that this is now the second time in 12 months I have had to remove NFS from my two PCs in order to allow browsing to even work.  I really want to look at the Premier offering (especially now that it has got good reviews from PC Pro in the UK) but these experiences really put me off.  So some detail from my issue.

Firefox can be started but when you try to close it, it hangs and no other Internet browser can then work (IE or Chrome).  Also on one of the PCs I got strange message in Internet Explorer "A website wants to open web content using this program on your computer" "This program will open outside of Protected mode..." and the program is Firefox.exe - very weird to see this in IE!

Finally - perhaps not related I find that the time limits simply do not work on one PC - and the Internet Pluggins often report as having been disabled but I have no idea how.  All in all I am disappointed customer with cash waiting to spend on the best solution.  Screenshot uploaded below.

Hello,

 

I am encountering the exact same problem. Firefox browser does not open when Norton Family is installed.

I am really concerned to see such issues as I was also thinking about the possibility to subscribe to Premier.

 

Please keep me updated.

 

 

Hey folks, this is not just a Firefox issue, it is also a Chrome issue.  I have two win 7 x64 machines and one win 8 x64 machine.  I finally had to uninstall Norton Family in order to simply access the internet.  It seemed to not only be causing problems with firefox and chrome but with internet access in general.  this happened after two updates that occurred a couple days ago.  

 

I still have one computer that will not allow any browser access to the internet and since it won't allow any access I can't even uninstall Norton Family since it can't connect to Norton to confirm my credentials.  for the other two machines, once I uninstalled Norton Family all was well.  

 

Sloppy work Norton!  This isn't the first time you have made a major goof like this one.  

It’s not just Firefox and chrome, it’s windows explorer altogether. I couldn’t open my documents, mail, music etc
I did a complete system restore and the problem reoccurred as soon as I reinstalled norton family
I should have known NOF was the culprit as it has been messed up so much in the past.
What I wild like to see is an option to choose to update NOF…if I had have known it was problematic I would choose motto download it.
This is the last straw, I’m uninstalling and buying a new product

Believe it or not, I just got through grappling with this issue over on this thread:

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Toolbar-Norton-Identity/Firefox-24-still-crashes-when-the-NIS-toolbar-is-enabled/m-p/1026115/highlight/false#M13863

 

On my XP Professional system, right after the recent Norton Online Family (NOF) update, in addition to what I documented in the link above, My Documents folder would "hang" for at least a minute before it would open!

Hello subfam2,

 

If you tried re-starting, because that would give (me at least) temporary Internet access before I completely un-installed Norton Online Family, you may just desire to utilise the Norton Removal Tool available at: norton.com/nrt

 

Regards,

 

H.B. 

Hi All,

 

Thanks for the information.  We are currently checking into the issue.

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

Having spent a wasted evening trying to fix two kid's windows 7 laptops, I'd like to add my voice and express my dissaisfaction at this issue. I can confirm that Norton Family 2.9.0.21 and Firefox 24.0 do not play well together under Windows 7. Firefox hangs on exit unless NF is uninstalled. I am also receiving many messages saying my kids disabled the NF browser plugin, but I am very sure they are not capable of doing that, so the messages are a result of program failure. NF & Firefox have had more than their fair share of problems over the years. Please, Katie Q and your team - I appreciate you are already on the case, but please fix these issues urgently, otherwise I will have to waste even more time looking for an alternative package to protect my family. And that will likely mean saying goodbye to six NIS subscriptions.

Try qustodio, it works pretty well…I have used it in the past when NOF want working…I installed it now, doesn’t mess up your system

Thanks adgarner11!

since NOF problems started with FF24 my children's laptops have been badly shielded and I was searching for an alternative

I think I'll give qustodio a try this evening

 

It's sad to say, because I really like NOF, but the problems with FF are really becoming endemic and extremely slow to fix: when FF23 was published it was weeks before I could safely upgrade with the right plugins, and now this with FF24 ...

I have even noticed that uninstalling NOF results in a 15-20% overall perfomance gain, even noticeable on unmonitored accounts where NOF should do nothing!

 

-Gliver

qustodio also has a safe browser for iOS, sign in and the same rules you create for pc apply to the ipod tocuh/iphone/ipad...I may splurge on the premium version

Thanks adgamer11 for the Qustodio tip

 

I reached the conclusion that Norton Family is unfit for purpose, so Norton family is now uninstalled from all three of my kid's PCs. Qustodio installed no problems. It doesn't have a browser plugin that can be disabled in Firefox, so that's one less thing to go wrong ( I was receiving daily NF browser plugin disabled emails, even though the kids don't know how to do that). Qustodio has similar account management to Norton's and it was easy to set up. Firefox now shuts down without crashing, and Google images now works correctly in safe mode without always displaying a blank page. The kids are happy and so am I, now that my work is done fixing this annoying problem.

 

Some free customer insight for Symantec's product managers and marketing department: Norton Family was the main reason I have chosen to install Norton Internet Security on my six home PCs for many years. I have been using the free version of NF,  and I'm sure my blood pressure would have been considerably higher right now if I was using the premium paid-for version. So now that I am no longer using Norton Family, when the NIS subscription renewals are due, I'll probably choose a lower cost antivirus and security solution.

Thanks for the suggestion.  That is what I did on my Win 7 machines and did exactly that - gave me a small window in which I could access the internet and uninstall Norton Family.  However, on the Win 8 machine it wouldn't.  I rebooted a number of times with no success.  To this day it does not allow access to the internet so I can't uninstall Norton Family and will have to run the Norton Uninstall tool to remove everything including my 360.  Maybe it's time to see what else is out there again.  

 

thanks-