I have an HP desktop computer running Windows 7 64-bit and have the latest version of Norton Security Suite (at least I think it's the most recent one. I'm at a computer other than mine so can't check Norton version, Windows Service Pack or other info now, but can later if you need specific info). I have had this computer for only about 2 months and have had NSS running on it the whole time. The other day I was on the internet (a site I have gone to many times before with no problems) and when I hit to go to another page in the website a weird popup came up asking if I was sure I wanted to exit the site. (I've seen plenty of legit "are you sure you want to redirect"-type messages from firefox/gmail before, but none like this. It looked very suspect and would not go away no matter what I tried). I didn't want to click on it but nothing would make it go away (alt+F4, etc) so I did a hard reboot. I tried to run a virus scan with Norton after that but the computer froze in the middle of it and I had to reboot again. Ever since then when I open Norton it says At Risk and says that my PC has never been scanned (which it has), and firewall and all other services are off. I've tried running scans (both in regular mode and safe mode) and NSS does not find any risks. Have also tried turning on firewall and other services manually (as well as clicking the Fix Now button) and running LiveUpdate, but every time I restart the computer everything is off again and Norton says At Risk. also whenever I open the interet on that computer, a tab pops up that has an address beginning with "us.norton" and ending with "id=sos" (lots of stuff in between that I don't remember), but the tab doesn't show anything, just a blank screen.
In a post on a similar issue on the N360 forum (Norton ways saying someone had never run scans when they had), a user suggested that this was either due to malware or a bad version of Norton. Because of the circumstances I think it's malware, so I downloaded Malwarebytes antimalware (as per the suggestion in the N360 forum). But MBAM didn't find anything (no infected files or bad registry entries or anything). I have also tried Norton Power Eraser and nothing was found there either.
Because of the circumstances (Norton working perfectly fine in the past and going to the website with the suspicious popup) I am very skeptical of the results I keep getting that I don't have any malware. I'm also worried because I've had bad experiences with viruses in the past (why I had to get my new computer 2 months ago). Does anyone have any suggestions of other ways to check for malware besides those I've tried? Also, if it is just some kind of Norton problem (though I'm doubtful of that), what do I do to fix it?
Thanks for this information. I do have the latest version of NSS, thanks for providing the number. To clarify, yes, I do mean that everything within NSS itself goes off (Smart Firewall is turned off, and Virus/Spyware Scan, Disk Optimization, etc all indicate that they have never been run. I am not referring to any Windows services or Windows-specific indicators of whether Norton is on.
My computer came with a preinstalled 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security, but when I installed NSS (which I have access to free from Comcast) the Norton Removal Tool removed the NIS trial program as part of the new program install. So I'm guessing if Norton Removal Tool worked correctly the system should be clean of the NIS program, correct? Also, when this problem started (11/25) it had not yet been 60 days from the time I first got my computer (~9/29)--it's only 58 days (or less, because I only have a record of the computer's ship date, not the day it actually arrived and was set up, which was probably later), so the NIS trial should not have expired yet when I started having these problems.
What do you suggest I do next? Would uninstalling/reinstalling Norton help at all, do you think?
I will definitely check out the forums you suggested for malware diagnosis--thanks to both you and Delph for the info.
Finally, thanks for the tip about closing popups using task manager. I will definitely do that in the future.
After you reinstall Norton, please run manual liveupdate as many times as necessary to receive a response of "no updates are available". Reboot.
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Please post back with the results.
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FYI, regardless of what the install instructions said about removing the previous Norton - the Comcast version only removes it as you would when using Add/Remove programs. The installer does not run the Norton Removal Tool, which "totally removes all Norton programs".
I have an HP desktop computer running Windows 7 64-bit and have the latest version of Norton Security Suite (at least I think it's the most recent one. I'm at a computer other than mine so can't check Norton version, Windows Service Pack or other info now, but can later if you need specific info). I have had this computer for only about 2 months and have had NSS running on it the whole time. The other day I was on the internet (a site I have gone to many times before with no problems) and when I hit to go to another page in the website a weird popup came up asking if I was sure I wanted to exit the site. (I've seen plenty of legit "are you sure you want to redirect"-type messages from firefox/gmail before, but none like this. It looked very suspect and would not go away no matter what I tried). I didn't want to click on it but nothing would make it go away (alt+F4, etc) so I did a hard reboot. I tried to run a virus scan with Norton after that but the computer froze in the middle of it and I had to reboot again. Ever since then when I open Norton it says At Risk and says that my PC has never been scanned (which it has), and firewall and all other services are off. I've tried running scans (both in regular mode and safe mode) and NSS does not find any risks. Have also tried turning on firewall and other services manually (as well as clicking the Fix Now button) and running LiveUpdate, but every time I restart the computer everything is off again and Norton says At Risk. also whenever I open the interet on that computer, a tab pops up that has an address beginning with "us.norton" and ending with "id=sos" (lots of stuff in between that I don't remember), but the tab doesn't show anything, just a blank screen.
In a post on a similar issue on the N360 forum (Norton ways saying someone had never run scans when they had), a user suggested that this was either due to malware or a bad version of Norton. Because of the circumstances I think it's malware, so I downloaded Malwarebytes antimalware (as per the suggestion in the N360 forum). But MBAM didn't find anything (no infected files or bad registry entries or anything). I have also tried Norton Power Eraser and nothing was found there either.
Because of the circumstances (Norton working perfectly fine in the past and going to the website with the suspicious popup) I am very skeptical of the results I keep getting that I don't have any malware. I'm also worried because I've had bad experiences with viruses in the past (why I had to get my new computer 2 months ago). Does anyone have any suggestions of other ways to check for malware besides those I've tried? Also, if it is just some kind of Norton problem (though I'm doubtful of that), what do I do to fix it?