Since I installed NIS 2009, the open-source Putty SSH client application takes some 3-4 minutes to open a new terminal window. It seems to hang at the first network activity, between the configuration dialog box and actually displaying the terminal window. This happens regardless of where you are trying to connect to. It is not a firewall issue as such - turning off the Smart Firewall (or adding exceptions for Putty and/or TCP/IP port 22) makes no difference.
I have however determined that if I turn off SONAR Advanced Protection in the antivirus part of NIS 2009, then Putty will start normally (i.e. instantly).
I had a chat with Symantec tech support, and the chap said that it is because Putty is being picked up as a suspicious program by SONAR, and that it can take 3-4 minutes for SONAR to check it. I find it hard to believe that it is supposed to take 3-4 minutes for SONAR to authorise (or deny) a 'suspicious' program every time you use it. Note that after 3-4 minutes Putty does continue as normal, with no message from Norton. The only thing in the Norton 'History' log is a record that Putty is preparing to access the internet.
I was wondering if anyone else uses Putty (or could download and try it for me) with NIS 2009 and could tell me if they have the same problem? And if anyone can comment on the suggestion that it is normal for SONAR to 'hang' an application for several minutes on first network activity, with no explanatory message popping up?
What version of NIS2009 are you using? This can be found in the Help & Support | About menu in the form of xx.xx.xx.xxx . For example mine is 16.5.0.135 .
Never used PuTTY before so I downloaded the PuTTY.exe from here . Ran the file and put in a yahoo.com address (I don't use any TTY / Telnet apps or services since the days of BBS went byebye). For me the window popped up immediately after all the rules were made in the firewall section of NIS. It took about 0.002 seconds.
On to your problem; is this always happening? Has it always happened or just started happening recently? Do you have the full set of PuTTY apps or just PuTTY? Are you using the daily builds or the stable released version?
Yes, the problem always happens (if SONAR is enabled).
I think it has always happened since I installed Norton (about 10 days ago).
I am just using PuTTY, the latest stable version (0.60). I repeated exactly the same test you did (entering www.yahoo.com) and can confirm that if SONAR is enabled, the main window does not appear for several minutes, whereas it appears instantly if SONAR is disabled.
Your comments confirm my suspicion that what is happening is not normal (as Norton tech support claimed), and there must be something which is stopping Norton SONAR working properly on my computer...
@dbrisendine: yes, that is the main window I am talking about. If you want, you can enter "hermes.cam.ac.uk" as the host name and you will see a "login:" prompt appear in that main window. In my case, if SONAR is enabled, there is a delay of several minutes between the configuration dialog disappearing and the main window appearing.
My machine is running Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit. No other firewalls/antivirus running. The NIS2009 installation didn't encounter any problems.
I am now fairly sure that this problem is not specific to PuTTY but is a problem with SONAR on my machine. If I start another slightly unusual program that accesses the network (the Cygwin bash shell), I get the same kind of delay while that starts up (only if SONAR is enabled). So it seems that any program which is "suspicious" (i.e. accesses the network and is not already trusted by Norton) incurs this massive delay while SONAR checks it out.
SONAR issues can be quite a mystery. The only suggestion is to do a full uninstall and reinstall the software.
Use this link to get the latest version the NIS software available where you are and to download the Norton Removal Tool. Directions are on the same web site but it follows this steps (by the way, this assumes that this is the only Norton product you have because this will remove them all):
Download latest version of NIS. Download the latest version of the NRT. If you haven't done so, go to www.mynortonaccount.com and securely save your product activation information so you can find it whenever and wherever you need it.
Boot into safe mode (on power up, tap the F8 key until Advanced Options load and select Safe Mode (only).
Run the NRT. Reboot into safe mode again.
Run the NRT. Delete your temporary files and any remaining Norton / Symantec folders in C:\ Program Files (but don't delete the install download).
Boot into normal mode and install NIS2009. If you need to, you can apply your key directly from mynortonaccount by clicking the Where do I find this information? link on the Activation page that shows at the end of installation. (Kind of ignore all the warnings that happen to the side about your blah blah blah is not secure / you are at risk / no AV; this happens because the software is not activated yet.) Once activated, close the main NIS screen and wait a moment, then open the main NIS screen and click on Live Update and let it download and install all the updates it can find (by now, possibly 16MB). Keep doing this until Live Update reports there are no more updates.
Configure the setting for NIS2009 for any 'flavors' you like (early loading, auto delete cookies, etc.). Reboot your system and test PuTTY. Let us know how this works for you.
Thanks for the detailed reinstall instructions. I was guessing that would be the next thing to try.
Last night I started a second enquiry with tech support and they have just pointed out that I can make specific exclusions from Auto Protect (which includes SONAR), in NIS->Computer->Settings->Scan Exclusions->Auto Protect Exclusions. And indeed if I add Putty.exe to this, it starts fine.
This isn't entirely satisfactory since any other program which triggers SONAR will have the same problem (I have already found one other - Cygwin bash shell), but I think I'll live with this workaround for a while and see if the problem goes away on its own, rather than going through the hassle of a reinstall which may or may not help.
Thanks for the help. I'll post again in this thread if there are any developments or if I figure out what the underlying problem with SONAR is.
sebwills, I regularly use the Cygwin BASH shell and I’m not receiving any SONAR related events. Are you doing anything in particular that seems to trigger these?
No, nothing special - it just seems that anything which accesses the network (except very well known applications) hangs for 3 or 4 minutes if SONAR is enabled. I'm guessing my SONAR is broken for some reason and is timing out.This applies to Cygwin tools and native Windows applications.
For example, when I launch Cygwin bash shell from the Start menu, the window appears, but there is a delay of over 3 minutes before the bash prompt itself appears. Looking in Norton's History, it records that "C:\cygwin\bin\uname.exe is preparing to access the internet" (Norton-speak for doing a name lookup?) - I guess this happens as bash is setting up the hostname etc. Then if I invoke another command which uses the network (e.g. ssh), again there is a pause of several minutes before anything appears. None of these delays occur of Norton's SONAR Advanced Protection is disabled.
As noted earlier in the thread, this happens for native Windows software too, e.g. PuTTY, or other programs which check for updates etc. Web browsing with Firefox / IE is OK, presumbaly because Norton recognises them and doesn't do a SONAR query.
Unless anyone has a better idea, I will have to try reinstalling NIS.
