Please bring back the Network Security Map feature

The current version of Norton Security removed the "Network Security Map" feature that was available in earlier versions.

This feature was very handy (at least to me) and I would like to have it available again.

mike o'neill

 

very useful feature, please bring it back

Add Back the Security Map! That is a wonderful feature and should not be removed. It is nice to see what is accessing my network and be able to respond appropriately.

This was indeed a very useful feature for a large wireless home network. I referred to it nearly everyday to check and make sure there were no intruders gaining access to my network and even caught a few that Norton's firewall had not prevented from gaining access. No software put out by anyone is completely invulnerable and the map pointed this out. I am guessing that was the main reason it was removed.

As it was very handy in helping keep intruders out, I too am requesting that this feature be brought back in that it would help your standing with everyone by helping us to make your program complete protection with the use of the Network Security Map.

My third and last post here... I forgot I had a second subscription to NIS, the first expired and the second will do so at the end of October.

However I had been trying to stick with the product up until this Thursday. On Thursday morning my system began crashing and on reboot would get to desktop and within seconds explorer.exe would become totally non responsive leaving the only option of hard reset and no way to diagnose. Fortunately I had a full backup made 2 days before, so I nuked the drive and performed a full clean install of windows and fully updated this to the point of no more updates available. The system was flying, I then downloaded NIS from my account at Norton and installed it, instantly the problem was back... explorer.exe non responsive. Using a laptop, no Norton installed I googled the problem, lo and behold I am not the first, so on the phone to Norton support to be advised there was no known problem, when I advised them to use google the tune changed to we can fix it in the next 24hrs, well they haven't fixed it since April so I think there is no hope and to be told just to wait and not use my computer is outrageous.

I have reinstalled Windows again, and am now using Malwarebytes, I now realise how badly Norton slowed my system, without Norton the system is a pleasure to use again. Well Norton you don't listen, don't care and to be frank don't give a toss about your customers so it's goodbye and good riddance.

Hi

Please it would be nice to have it back, informative.

 

I too am adding my voice to ask that the Network Security Map be added back to NIS. How can a product that prides itself on security take away such a great security tool!

TJBlues: Thanks for the "Virtual MAC" suggestion; as mentioned briefly in the first reply, there was one unknown manufacturer's MAC that showed up in my Network Map back in the day but I missed getting a screenshot of it.  Perhaps that's what it was; a Virtual MAC.

Unfortunately, the router I'm using is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, it's been through several resets since Network Map was a thing.  Anything it's told me about "Attached Devices" has been somewhat spare, that's part of the reason why what Network Map appeared to be observing was so noteworthy.

I wouldn't worry too much about going off topic since Norton is apparently not monitoring this thread.  At this point it seems that the users are trying to resolve the base problem.  As I've said before, I just dropped off Norton altogether.  I'd also incorporated a number of the same hardware setups and have zero unknowns on my net.  I had some trouble before because of the numerous SSIDs in close to me, but no more now.  I did download  FING, really good stuff, thanks for the heads up TJBlues.  I need to do some more studying on it yet.  seems pretty clear though.

Hey MDW314.  I see what you are saying. Since we no longer have Network Map I can't run a test to try and figure out what is going on.  Also; We are getting a little off topic here but I have looked into the devices attached to my Router and Extender.  A couple of things I found was that any device that is attached, was attached or tried to be attached will appear in the attached devices list.  On the Attached Devices page of my Router it states that it is showing: "2.4GHz Wireless Devices (Wireless intruders also show up here)" so any devices that tried to intrude on the network will show up but not be allocated an IP address.  You can at least check to see what kind of device it was (or who manufactured the device) by going to http://www.macvendorlookup.com/ and pasting the MAC address into the search box.  That will tell you who manufactured the device and may give a clue as to who tried to get in.  Now the interesting part; I found several MAC addresses in my tables that had no manufacturer listed according to the macvendorlookup site.  On further investigation (opening the range extender and looking at the attached devices list) I found out that it substitutes a virtual MAC address for any device that connects to it and then that virtual MAC address is registered in the router MAC address table and is displayed as the MAC for the device.  The range extender's Attached devices list contains a table that shows both the real MAC address as well as the Virtual MAC address it assigned to the device.  So you may want to look at that if you are running an extender.

TJBlues:  The "disconcerting" aspect was your earlier reference to "attached to your network".  The MACs discovered should not have been able to connect according to my router settings, they were offline at the time of screenshot so they had no IPs allocated.  Maybe they did find a way to connect & obtain an IP without me realizing which is now worrying, not just disconcerting.

Anyway, it would be great to know what it was Norton was observing but as you said, Norton's new reality means it'll probably be an open puzzle for some time.

Hi MCW314.  I'm not sure what you find disconcerting about my reply.  Is it that I use several tools to get this information and secure my networks or is it that Norton will never again offer this very useful feature (or even look at or respond in this thread)?  Either way this is now the new reality of what we get with Norton.

TJBlues, appreciate the response even if it is a bit disconcerting.

Like you described for yourself, my router's been configured to block access to all but the MACs specified.  Nevertheless, Network Map would report on various MAC addresses attempting to establish a connection with my network, none of them would be allocated IP addresses.  Still got screenshots of the various what I called "Unknown" HTC, LG, Samsung & Sony devices with their Physical Addresses (MAC addresses) recorded & Trust Levels set to Restricted along with the settings appropriate for each of my own devices.  Remembering one MAC that showed up whose manufacturer I never could figure out unfortunately I don't seem to have captured a screenshot of it.  So, perhaps it was picking up the references through one of my device's Bluetooth vs the router's WiFi but they had to be coming from somewhere.  May never know for sure; just guessing it was the neighbours.

Hi MDW314.  I think you may not be remembering it correctly.  Network Map only had the ability to report on devices that were attached to your network.

Thanks TJBlues, I have been following this thread for quite some time now hoping that Norton would bring this feature back, obviously they don't really care so it's great to have an alternative that will do the job instead :)

TJBlues:  Thanks and kudos!  My router/extender setup is similar to yours, and I've tried several of the other actions you suggest, but FING was new to me.  I've installed it now, and like it a lot!  It's the missing link.

It's astonishing to me that Symantec hasn't seen fit to restore the functionality, or even deigned to respond to this long and long-lived thread.  That's a contempt for customers that I haven't seen in any other company; even my cable carrier is more responsive.  We're lucky that some of our fellow users are willing to help, and come up with useful suggestions and information.  Thanks again.

Thanks TJBlues for the FING suggestion - very useful and simple (relatively speaking).

Remembering one thing about the old Network Map though that I'm not seeing through FING; Network Map used to pick up on what I assume were my (apartment dwelling) neighbours' Bluetooth/WiFi MAC address broadcasts from their phones etc. & give me the option to block those MACs or not, FING's seeing none of that, just my network.

Good enough though, my internal network is enough to monitor.

So I too was impacted by the elimination of the Network Map feature and nearly 2 years ago I wrote in this post hoping that Norton would see the error of their ways and return that feature.  But, as many have come to realize, Norton does not give a crap about its customers.  That feature was a huge help in debugging my home network when I was having issues as well as allowing me to control what devices could access what content on the devices I have in the house.  It is frustrating when you have a tool that works and then it is ripped from your fingers.

So over the last couple of years I have managed to piece together a couple of tools and made modifications to my computers to help harden my network and devices.  Sadly I still use Norton Internet Security as I have not been able to convince myself to break that bad habit (even after what it did to me today by wiping all my exe’s from my SW development area and cloud storage because it thought they were viruses).

So here is what I did and I know this is not as simple as using the Network Map.

For viewing what is on my network I use an android app called FING (it's also available for the iPhone).  It is a great little app that shows me everything that is (and has been) connected to my network.  It tells me if it the device is online or offline.   I can see everything including my computers, mobile phones, tablets, TVs, Blu-Ray, AV Amp, Printers, FireStick, basically every device that has an IP address and is connected to my network.   It tells me the IP address as well as the MAC Address and allows me to name my devices. This is handy for the devices that don’t respond with a device name.  For instance, all our phones are Samsung and I was able to rename the generic name of “Samsung mobile” to the person’s name.  Anyway this is a great little app and very handy as I don’t need to be on my computer to see what is connected to my network.

For blocking other people from getting onto my network.  Granted that the Network Map never could do this but people have mentioned this in the post.  Here is what I do.  I run a Netgear WNDR4300 wireless router with a WN2500RP extender.  I run WPA2-PSK so that anyone wanting to get into my network would need to have the password.  Also, in order to block anyone from getting into my network that should not be there I use the access control feature.  What this does is only allow certain MAC addresses to attach to my network.  The setup of that is pretty simple.  All you need to do is turn on all your devices and connect then go into the router settings - access control settings and allow all the devices you see (as long as you recognize them and block those that you don't).  Make sure you set the router to block all new devices from connecting.  If you have a laptop that you connect both by wireless as well as Ethernet then you need to make sure that both MAC address are registered.  Then turn on the Access Control feature.  When I have a new computer to add I simply turn off the Access Control feature, register the new MAC address as allowed and then turn the Access Control feature back on.  As a note here - Don’t ever set up static IP addressing in your network.   That is just bad practice and will lead to all sorts of problems when you go to add new devices.  Let the router assign the IPs through DHCP.  I only have 3 static IPs in my network.  The router, the extender and my Samsung printer.  The router and extender for obvious reasons will have static IPs and the Samsung printer because Samsung just don’t know how to write device handlers.

My Router has  guest wifi capability and I leave that open (with a password) for when we have guests over so they can access the internet.  The guest wifi access has a separate SSID and does not expose my home network to others.  You can set up a separate password for the guest side and I use “BeMyGuest”.  They ask “Can we use your network?” and I say “Sure BeMyGuest”

Finally for managing what device in my network has access to what content on what computer, I use the file sharing capability built into Windows.  Yup I set up shared volumes and files on my computers and go ahead and set permissions on folders etc.  I know call me crazy but that feature is there in Windows.  For my media devices I use DLNA to share content.

Finally I use two different Android apps for monitoring the WiFi signals to make sure I can optimize my WIFI experience.  These are “WiFi Analyzer”  and “WiFi Analytics”.  Both are available from the Google Play Store.  I use these to help me decide if I need to change WiFi channels if it is getting too crowded.  Network Map could not do that but I thought I would throw that in for good measure.

Hope this helps all you that are disappointed in Norton dropping Network Map.

I remember writing to this post a year ago. One solution I found was to load Norton 360 version (with map) on one of my other computers and using the license from my current version of Norton Security to activate the older 360. I use that for anytime I want to see what's on the network. Also can log into my router which gives a list of used IP addresses. Just an FYI if it helps anyone. By the way, I would think if McAfee has a good network map I would think Norton would want to keep up with the completion!

I get the occasional Email about this thread since I first made a post.  I've bought Norton's since Peter Norton started it.  My solution was to buy McAfee's Internet Security.  Advantages are: Finding all the devices accessing your network and registering all those you want on a network map with better information than the old Norton map.  You don't have two different maps to track.  The second big factor is that you can use it on virtually all your devices (PCs, phones, tablets, etc) that you own on one license.  There are some remote management capabilities  also.

McAfee will show the cameras but you want to eliminate them permanently.  McAfee does let you mark intruders and hide them.  I would prefer to exclude them entirely.  For you immediate problem, the following suggestions are provided.  I don't know your particular setup so I may be way off base.  Not trying to preach.

Your router allows you to set up a unique broadcast name (SSID) for your wireless network (not the default SSID), it should allow you to set up WPA-2(AES) security with a NEW password, block other networks, and limit the devices that can log onto your network.  All modern routers have the capability to limit the number of IP addresses that can log in and use MAC addresses to statically map that number of machines to your network. In your case the Router, five PCs/Laptops, and probably a printer.  So set up a range of only six IP addresses and statically assign a MAC address to each.

There is a free program called inSSIDer3 by MetaGeek to search for all SSID in range.  Sometimes it's called inSSIDer3-Home.  That may help in identifying the SSID of the offending cameras or network (s).  It can also show you their address in either the 2.4G or 5G range.  If you have the capability to use the 5G address range, try using that with your 2.4G radio on a different address, or turned off.  Most cameras use 2.4G.

Some other things:  Make sure your workgroup , or homegroup name, is not the default.  Check your Advanced Sharing Settings  and do not allow guest or public access.  In turn, use the Private profile and the encryption and password protection on under All Networks.  If you have a private network with a unique work or home group name, the cameras should not be getting to your laptop card.

Good Luck!