Norton VPN does not automatically start on boot up windows 10 pc

Archive
1

Hello, 1st post for me,

I have just installed Norton 360 on a Windows 10 PC. My Norton VPN does not automatically start on boot up . I have to turn it on from  the 2nd control panel I click. I click the 360 icon in tray and then click the launch My Norton and have to turn it on.

I click Open to open the vpn. I can only see a few changeable setting and that's add tracking,vpn switch and location, I can choose a country. There are no setting to start the VPN on starting up the computer ? seems strange that I have to manually start the vpn everytime I start up clicking 2 separate programmes.

I have tried Norton Live chat 4-5 times but it will not work.

These are the features I bought it for

Secure VPN Browse anonymously and securely with a no-log VPN. Add bank-grade encryption to help keep your information like passwords and bank details secure and private.

I cannot see why there is not an auto start up process with the VPN, I dont want to be turning it on evry time I boot the PC up.

 

  • Norton product name and version   Latest version  I cannot find a number or code Norton 360 Lifelock
  • Operating system windows 10 Home version 1903
  • Norton error message / error code / screen shot  Screen shot
  • Steps to reproduce issue

Regards John Birch

2

FYI!! It IS indeed, a feature and by design for the N360 VPN not to start automatically, the reason for that is as you said has not been officially given. My thoughts!!  Not having a VPN continue to have a "live" connection while a device is in hibernation or sleep mode is understandable on the part of Norton, if for no other reason than, due to congestion of the services that provide that connection. And how that may end up affecting other users looking for an active connection and cannot get one for those reasons. Another issue COULD be that use of system resources may be higher than normal when, waking from sleep, hibernation and booting. We all know without a doubt that would become the next issue of choice after the fact. 

That being said.  Good luck attempting to load a script to force Norton to load the VPN at boot-time. Unfortunately, even with boot time scanning disabled. Tamper protection will protect the Norton installation almost with 100% certainlty once the handoff to the OS takes place.

For the record, we Guru's HAVE presented the issue to the development team for inclusion back into the product more than once. After at least two new major revision releases it has not happened. So what shall we think? The VPN is after all a product of Norton, they, will in time either add the feature back as the stand alone VPN now has, or, produce an official explanation for why they will not. I suggest waiting for the later as we all have for what seems like eons. 

SA

3

Wow! I can't believe all this trouble is still going on. I dumped the VPN program months ago because of the same issues. Norton techs were unable to help me. All these issues remind me of the days when I ran windows ME...one problem after another.

I upgraded to win 10 from 7 and thought I would try VPN again but I have my doubts after reading about all the problems. Good luck to you folks struggling with vpn.

4

I am also debating moving to another provider. I dumped Norton a LONG time (late 1990's or early 2000's) dues to similar and other issues like being a HUGE resource hog and slowing systems.

Thought I would give Norton another try with the Lifelock service.

Sadly Norton has not learned much in the 20± years I've been gone and continues to provide questionable marketing practices and underperform their advertising hype.

In my contacts with Norton regarding this issue, they continually offer for me to purchase their stand-alone VPN service, for an additional cost.

When I have already paid $$ for 10 devices for Norton 360 plus Lifelock and their solution is to sell me another product? I will not let loose with what my thoughts and feelings are on a company that offers that type of "support".

Criminal is about as kind as I can be.

5

I managed to cancel today and got a full refund of the product, within 60 day rule. The lady who I chatted with said if I stayed I could have a 50% refund and keep product for a year. I paid £89.99 for 2 years.   No bargain being handed out to me there. She also said they are working on vpn that stays on all the time from boot up. I got a refund and will buy something else.

 

Thanks to you all for input

 

regards J B Birch

6

My previous tirade was a little strong, but the .69 ‘Release Notes’ says that they will monitor comments and had to roll back prior release because of “connection failure errors”, which are being discussed in another thread! ‘The good, the bad, the ugly’ choose your poison! https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/product-update-announcements/norton-security-2220169-windows-now-available Note that it appears that the design needed fixing.

“John boy bitch” stated the customer problem very clearly, please reread why ppl bought ‘360 with VPN’ and why the customers are so furious. But in Norton’s defense there is NO EASY/SIMPLE FIX that would satisfy everyone and is probably being worked. But it would be nice if Norton acknowledged that more directly and provided a partial, more secure fix. See Sportfan100 statement of issue.

I strongly concur with ‘darth_vida’s suggestion that “AUTO start at boot” should be an option/setting (probably in firewall settings). Defaulted OFF, as turning it ON might get ‘connectivity errors’ from other auto start apps. Customer’s choice. Note VPN is not good for streaming video -OFF

. Also any fix must retain the ‘My Norton’ panel to also offer the VPN options, especially ON/OFF, as VPN may not work for all sites that need to be connected with after startup. (I even had to turn VPN OFF to start this COMMUNITY site}.

The Norton VPN encrypts, hides finance/personal info that LifeLock is interested in but not necessarily your IP address that sniffers are also interested in. The other important feature of a VPN!. During boot up lasting several minutes, your IP address might be exposed before a VPN is connected through the Firewall. I usually run ‘update’ and ‘quick scan’ manually upon powering up PC, so I also then start the VPN to have encryption protection for apps I start. Not only was my IP address exposed during W10 boot, but my IP address was exposed before the VPN connected several seconds after panel appeared.and I made my entry

My gut feel from reading various posts and threads that the ‘MY NORTON’ panel was just part of the VPN development and the developed process for ‘auto start at boot’ was not released (patched out) because some startup/bootup processes could not be connected through an already started VPN. See https://community.norton.com/en/forums/vpn-not-working-update-2220169-connection-failure-error

The question is; When in the ‘boot up’ process the VPN can/should be started.

This is a complicated question! The W10 boot involves many asynchronous process steps to add capabilities for the next more complex operations/services and some of these services connect to a site for updates before a VPN is established. Exposing your IP address. See ‘Task Manager’ and ‘History’ for examples. VPN can’t be started immediately after BIOS boot. Not enough services. One person proposed that the ‘START’ process be used, but that is very late in the boot starting processes. Some apps ‘starting’ up may try to connect before the VPN is established through the FIREWALL causing ‘connection failure errors’. The firewall may have to delay these connections?

PS I am confident that Norton has substantial knowledge about W10 boot/start up processes and update controls as shown in this related thread: https://community.norton.com/en/forums/task-scheduler-how-set-live-update-startup

As another frustrated ~!@#$%^ customer of many years I wish Norton would more directly address/acknowledge they are working for an earlier auto VPN start up option in future release. Even a partial fix/update to prevent less IP exposure as this may take some major effort to fully securely implement.

7

It seems to me this thread has wandered from its original intent. It was started as a thread to discuss and request a change to a specific Norton 360 VPN behavior: that being the VPN would not start automatically upon boot up.

Ideally there should be an OPTION for this in Norton 360 client settings so users could toggle the behavior.

HOWEVER, we don't know if Norton sees the comments in these threads or pays any attention to them. Therefore, I would like to know from a moderator 1) if Norton receives these comments and requests, and how that occurs, and 2) I'd like to request that a FORMAL reply from Norton leadership be posted about whether the request is under advisement, whether it's in development, or if they do not intend to make a change to the product. I am about to reach the end of my 60 day refund window and a formal response that the change is underway would help me decide if I need to switch to a different product. I think many folks on this thread would agree.

A formal response seems like a good idea for Norton overall from a client satisfaction perspective, and this doesn't appear to me to be a difficult thing to achieve. In my opinion, it would seem to be a win-win for Norton to keep its long-standing customer base aware their requests are heard, and informed of future product plans.

Simply telling us "it's that way by design" implies that Norton does not intend to do anything about it. Left with only that bit of information, I'm inclined to switch to another product that DOES have the feature.

8

This problem is on many threads. But has very serious Legal problems that I thought LifeLock would be forced to make Norton address.

As a retired Product Manager when Development told me product "works as designed" and is a serious problem I quickly headed up the chain of command to see who authorized this design, but there might not be any supervision at Norton.- NO Bosses Boss----

When I first installed 360 and it didn't load! I did a W10 uninstall of old N Deluxe and then installed "360" and it came up with '360' logo but not the control panel that included turning on/off the VPN -One would then assume I had VPN as the "Subscription" said I did. Everything but VPN - Must have been old version of 360 before VPN. but it said it had the latest version 22.20.1.69.--!@#$%^&*---

After seeing the approved? "Works as designed fix" with a panel, I decided I needed to use the NRnR to reinstall 36bd 0. Which properly reinstalled the 360 with panel so that I could turn VPN on/off. Norton this took a lot of time and effort !!!!!

;

 

But I did learn how to troubleshoot IF I HAD a VPN active:--

Great Joy Almost happy days are here since nothing else was reliable---------

In the initial control panel when starting 360, under 'Device Security' click on 'OPEN'-------.

Then on the new panel click 'Security'------- panel further opens up with "You are Protected" -Ha Ha don't believe Norton---------,

Then click on 'History icon', a very usfull trouble shooting tool I use, ------

Next in the 'Show' box scroll down to 'Firewall - Network Connections' which shows adapter firewall changes------

If you see 'Protecting Your Computer ***** on adapter "NortonSecureVPN IP address (****)" then the VPN is active unless it is followed later in time by 'IP address has disappeared NortonSecureVPN IP address: (****)' then it has been disconnected from adapter.----- !!!!!!!!!!

If you know how to trace IP traffic you now know the VPN address

 

But Norton,marketing or LifeLock I. like many others, am still a very unhappy customer after reading the slick marketing materials that implied (LEGALLY BINDING) that VPN was active when I installed 360 - Been to court over this kind of scenario and was required( at great expense) to market/offer a start up fix/update to it,or make unlimited time money+$ back offer. Both were not good for brand.

e

9

The thread being marked solved, has nothing to do with a requested change to the functionality of the product. It only denotes that the original poster feels that they got an answer to their question.

And to top it all off, according to SoulAsylum, this is by design.

Don't blame SoulAsylum for this. He is only passing on information that Norton has posted in the past. He also noted that there have been many requests/suggestions to give more control over the functionality of the VPN feature, that Norton has not yet acted on.

 

10

I don’t understand how you can say that this is a solved issue when you have to repeatedly turn on VPN service each time your computer goes to sleep or you do a reboot. To me, that is not a fix, it still is an issue.

11

What hacked me off was that this is supposedly “a solved” issue. According to SoulAsylum the only VPN service that turns on automatically is the “Stand Alone” service, not the Norton 360 with Lifelock service. But the advertising that came with the Norton 360 with Lifelock makes you believe that the VPN service that you get with it, one would “assume”, you would not have to keep turning it on after reboot/sleep. And to top it all off, according to SoulAsylum, this is by design.

Technically, I guess I can’t complain because this is my dad’s account and my dad allowed me to put this computer on as a added device. My dad is in his 80’s, and if I had not stumbled onto this issue, my dad would have never know about it.

I let my dad know about the issue, and it now up to him to decide whether or not he wants to keep Norton.

12

As per my Jan. 28 post in this thread I have followed it somewhat with email notices.  I'm not following it as close as I could but I want to comment on two things.  One, there is an accepted solution [maybe that doesn't "fit" every body] and secondly I started singing on to Norton's VPN manually and after a few times/days of that I noticed I wasn't getting the VPN pop up at boot up.  I looked in bottom right of screen and voila it was running with out me entering p.w.  Then today, on auto., I noticed the VPN sign in screen after about an hour of the computer being on.  So it went off by itself....As they say, just saying.

13

This is ridiculous. What is this, 1989 and Norton is just getting started? Not allowing VPN to be loaded at boot is moronic, at best and I’m being kind.

We use this for our small business on multiple devices and having to remember to turn on VPN on every one is NOT practical.

I stopped using Norton in the early 2000’s due to issues like this and sadly they seem to have only improved their marketing hype.

14

Norton if you are reading.....


In my opinion, not offering the option in Norton 360 to automatically start the VPN is a serious flaw and introduces a vulnerability, which I have not seen Norton discuss nor advise users.   For example, if you system allows background processes such as email to run, email fetch will occur during the period prior to the user activating the VPN.  I believe this opens the window for potential information grab from sniffers that are listening in hotels and other unsecured networks.

By all means, if the user is exposed to no windows of vulnerability during the time between system wake / start up and activating the VPN, please let me know.  If the window of vulnerability does exist, Norton please clearly communicate to subscribers of Norton 360.

15

Well at least I generated a reaction. I'm probably outside the 60 days but really don't want to cancel - just get this VPN issue sorted for us all please.

16
dragon1:

 Do you think I could get my money back from Norton and buy something that stays on?

  Norton products (including subscriptions and Automatic Renewals) may be refunded within 60 days of the purchase date.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20100512172507

If you are looking for a refund, don't hesitate to contact Member Services, it is the fastest way to request cancellation and refund. You may also submit a refund request here. It is recommended that you go through the cancellation and refund policies before you request a refund.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20100113164023

 

17

Maybe another voice will help Norton take notice? But probably not!

It is seriously stupid having to keep restarting VPN after every reboot or wake from sleep. Do you think I could get my money back from Norton and buy something that stays on?

18

Installed Norton 360 Deluxe on W10. When I go to My Subscription (from Amazon) it shows it has a VPN but My Norton only shows a panel for VPN that does not turn it on or off.as shown in a previous fix reply in Community. My Norton only shows a VPN panel that only allows you to start another downloader of 360 that sends a downloader that doesn't download; A previous response in Community said that they got an older version of 360 that did not include the VPN I have Version 22.20.1.69 Current SKU 21403758 SN X8XT3HFKBWRD Do I need to run NRnR and then download using My Norton VPN panel? and then restart VPN after every restart???? or does my version not really have VPN?? How can I tell???? I installed on my cell phone Norton Mobile and had to install Secure VPN on it and it works.

19

It's the same for MacOS. I have to remember to turn it on after starting my computer from the sleep mode. Most of the time it does not start and I have to turn it on repetitively. Other features are disabled and do not appear on the screen, such as, Parental Control, PW Manager, Dark Web Monitoring. I have installed/uninstalled the software three times and the same problems reappear after a short period of time. Norton Help is no help at all. I will be looking for a new software to replace Norton.

20

When I turn on the VPN, I get a message that I'm protected. Doesn't tell me how or where the protection is, but it says it on. No banners or fanfare.....