Norton WiFi Privacy Help Please

Hello everyone

I visit schools with mobile planetariums and therefore get to connect to many different wifi networks every month. I use a MacBook Pro Retina with OS X 10.11.6.

About 30% of the time Norton WiFi Privacy connects successfully, without any problems.

About 30% of the time it fails to connect - but neither do my browser, Evernote and Dropbox - as the service is too insecure.

Yet about 40% of the time I obtain a good working connection with my browser and Evernote - but no connection with Dropbox and Norton WiFi Privacy. I find this very odd and would like to know why and if there is perhaps a solution?

Surely if Google, GMail and Evernote are happy with the level of security, then why is Norton WiFi Privacy unhappy?

Is there something I can do to help / force Norton WiFi Privacy connect?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much

Will do, thanks again for your help and advice

I am only guessing about the filtering, so maybe you can check and post back if you find out anything along those lines.

No need to close the thread. You can just abandon it. Norton staff usually only pop into threads when they feel the volunteers are at a dead end.

OK, now that sounds like a strong possibility. I guess schools will wish to avoid VPN access on the part of students, hence VPN is probably blocked at many schools.

Thanks Peter, this is very likely the answer to my question.

Should I close the thread or wait for possibly some advice from the Norton staff?

One thing you might check. The school networks you are trying to use may have some filtering software installed to restrict the kind of sites the students can access. This might also bar VPNs because they would bypass the filters and allow unrestricted access. See if you can contact the IT people at those locations. Unfortunately, the on site staff may not be very knowledgeable on this question, but they should know if filtering is used.

 

Well, as I mention in my original post, these 'problem' networks are all new networks I encounter when I visit different schools.

The schools give me a password and I log into the school wifi network. Yet 30% of the time I can only access sites like BBC News and FullDomeOnDemand.com. Yet Google search, Dropbox, GMail and of course NWP refuse to connect. Occasionally I can get Mail to connect if I select the setting 'connect also over an insecure network'.

I've been told that many school networks are insecure / without properly configured firewalls, etc.

Fair enough.

But why then does BBC and FullDomeOnDemand.com connect? Because clearly they don't require secure networks. OK. But why does NWP require a secure network, when it exists to provide security over an insecure network?

That's the part I don't understand.

Thank you for bumping up my question.

 

Going back to your original post.

About 30% of the time it fails to connect - but neither do my browser, Evernote and Dropbox - as the service is too insecure.

That would indicate to me there is some other networking issue at work here. If those other apps will not connect, there must be a network issue. Have you signed into these networks before trying to start NWP? NWP needs an established network to be able to connect to the virtual servers.

Have you run any Mac network diagnostics? Like I said, I only use Windows. 

I'll ask this thread be moved to the Mac board where Mac users may be able to help with any networking questions.

 

Hmm ... OK I'll go back to giving it the choice of country to connect to, but overall I know it will continue to be very 'fussy' as regards connections it accepts.

Which is what I don't understand. Surely the whole purpose of NWP is to connect to Norton home base with the even the most tenuous, insecure internet connection - and then create a secure connection for you to use?

(do any Norton technical staff follow these forums I wonder - or is there a way I can approach them directly perhaps?)

Ideally, if you have the app set to start when the computer is started, it should be connecting any time you are connected to the internet. 

Maybe you could just try letting NWP choose the country. I have seen my NWP connect to US most times, while I am in Canada. But sometimes it determines that a connection to another country is better. 

Now I have to add that I only know the Windows versions, so not sure if there might be some networking issue with Macs.

PS - I meant to ask, do you find it strange that NWP does not connect when Google connects? From your knowledge / experience, should it be connecting every time Google connects?

Thank you for your suggestions Peter. I routinely do the former, as I've discovered I have more success when my location is within the UK.

I'll try re-installing NWP - although I never have a problem with it at home on the same laptop. No harm giving it a try though, thanks.

Instead of letting Norton Wifi Privacy, NWP, choose your virtual location, try manually choosing one.

You can also try reinstalling NWP, if you have not already done that.