Safety Minder Has Been Disabled - Not Solved

Since the other identical thread has now been marked solved, I am starting a new thread as I and, I believe, others, are still having this issue where we get notices that "Norton Safety Minder Has Been Disabled on your child xxxxxx's laptop".
I have three  instances running on  PCs, a desktop with Vista Home Premium 32, a laptop with Vista basic 32 and a desktop with XP SP2. All are running Norton 360 v3.0.
 I only get the alerts from the laptop. All are using the 802.11B/G/N networks in the house, but only the laptop roams around at all obviously. No sign that the NSM has ever actually been disabled. In fact I will some times get further alerts that the child on the laptop tried to visit a site marked social or pronography or whatever not too long after NSM has supposedly been disabled.
 
I'd like to see this get resolved (for more than one user who marks a thread SOLVED.) When we as parents take care to put protection in place it's scary and frustrating to get messages (even when suspected to be erroneous) that the protection for the child has been totally disabled.
 
Thanks.
 

pwscott61 wrote:
Why does this thread now have a title of "Solved! Norton Safety Minder had been disabled"  ???? This doesn't seem top be solved for me. Does everyone else somehow think this is solved? If notm why is it titled like that?

 

It is marked solved because the person who started the thread believes that their issue has been resolved and has maked one of the posts as a solution to their problem..
Since the other identical thread has now been marked solved, I am starting a new thread as I and, I believe, others, are still having this issue where we get notices that "Norton Safety Minder Has Been Disabled on your child xxxxxx's laptop".
I have three  instances running on  PCs, a desktop with Vista Home Premium 32, a laptop with Vista basic 32 and a desktop with XP SP2. All are running Norton 360 v3.0.
 I only get the alerts from the laptop. All are using the 802.11B/G/N networks in the house, but only the laptop roams around at all obviously. No sign that the NSM has ever actually been disabled. In fact I will some times get further alerts that the child on the laptop tried to visit a site marked social or pronography or whatever not too long after NSM has supposedly been disabled.
 
I'd like to see this get resolved (for more than one user who marks a thread SOLVED.) When we as parents take care to put protection in place it's scary and frustrating to get messages (even when suspected to be erroneous) that the protection for the child has been totally disabled.
 
Thanks.
 

pwscott61 wrote:
Why does this thread now have a title of "Solved! Norton Safety Minder had been disabled"  ???? This doesn't seem top be solved for me. Does everyone else somehow think this is solved? If notm why is it titled like that?

 

It is marked solved because the person who started the thread believes that their issue has been resolved and has maked one of the posts as a solution to their problem..

There is another possibility occurring to me as an explanation.  Of my two children's computers, the one from which I am getting the "disabled" reports is the significantly older and slower machine.  Perhaps it is experiencing time-outs simply due to the extra burden that Safety Minder puts on the system.  I do know that it is significant because of the measureable slowdown in launching time for the applications for that user.

 

I also know that my daughter is in no away attempting to thwart the process.  Her attempt to deal with Safety Minder interventions is to call me over and ask for my help.  Moreover, I am constantly passing by her computer and always note the SM icon in the notification area.

No reply at all for more than a week huh? I guess marking the other thread “SOLVED” because one person’s problem is solved should make all of us feel better? I’d like to see this solved.

Hi pwscott61,

 

Thanks for your post.  Our QA and development team are currently working on this issue. 

 

Thanks,

Katie

I am also receiving the same message.  However, in my case, I have four children all using the same (wireless) desktop and I'm only receiving the message for one of them.  The message doesn't happen every time my son logs in, but when it is reported it is the first message reported on that day, but activity logging then continues as normal - it's not actually disabled.

 

The only difference I'm aware of between the son who gets the message and the other children is that I once disabled logging (until next login/restart) for the affected son - so that he could continue using the computer after the allowed time limit.  I'm wondering if there is some flag stored to indicate that logging has been disabled, that this flag is not removed properly when logging restarts and this causes the spurious "disabled" messages.

 

Regarding the question of intermittent wireless connections - I have tried several times without success to replicate the problem by breaking the wireless connection (pulling out the USB adaptor).

I too have the same problem. Of the 2 desktops I am running, it's my newer computer that gets the 'disabled' message.  I am using the Norton Internet Security 2010.

 

 

Interesting. In one of the posts above it is noted "....The only difference I'm aware of between the son who gets the message and the other children is that I once disabled logging (until next login/restart) for the affected son - so that he could continue using the computer after the allowed time limit.  I'm wondering if there is some flag stored to indicate that logging has been disabled, that this flag is not removed properly when logging restarts and this causes the spurious "disabled" messages...."

 

I too have often had to "Extend Time" for our child to finish homewaork after 10PM for example. I can't really correlate that to meesages yet, but I imagine it is worth the QA people exploring that aspect.

I continue to play with NSM and it seems that the only thing that was disabled was one of my kids' timer.  He has unlimited access to the internet.  Everything else continues to work - the activity listing, the blocking...etc.

When you say above “He has unlimited access to the internet.”…you mean TIME-UNLIMITED hopefully- NSM still restricts where he goes and to what yes?

Yeah, I do mean time wise.  I also just find out that each of my kids’ account has been disabled twice & now they both aren’t restricted by the NSM timer.

I also get messages once in a while that NSM has been disabled but when I check the logs I find monitoring has continued.

David

 


dgardner wrote:

I also get messages once in a while that NSM has been disabled but when I check the logs I find monitoring has continued.

David

 


As per the other thread I get these msg's regularly each day & the kids have disabled NSM as i do not get any monitoring after that point. I had also thought it was down to me or a s/ware conflict but then i witnessed my son disabling the s/ware (NSM) so easily. I wonder if there should be a thread on "how to disable NSM easily"? I REALLY DO like the NSM interface & the way it was working before the kids figured out the trick to disabling the s/ware. I just hope that someone at Symantec or Norton help me with my situation.

@thetazman

 

Could you tell us how your son managed to disable NSM?

In my case the monitoring continues after the message that NSM was disabled is sent. Also, I am sure my kids are not trying to disable it. 

As I mentioned in my post a few messages before, I get the message and then monitoring continues.

But since reading @thetaxman's message I have followed his method on a non-administrator account and completely disabled NSM.

AND as @thetaxman said, it is blindingly simple, his 5 year old did it. I am sure it took me a little longer but I also managed it. I can't believe none of us ever thought of this before.

 

Here's how:

1. While in a monitored account, disconnect from the internet (I did it by flicking the switch on the laptop that shuts off the wireless signal and I also did it through the "connect to" menu item).

2. Click NSM (dog's paw).

3. Click disable NSM

4. When asked for the "parent email" and "parent password" type anything (but you must put something in both fields)

5. Click OK

6. You will get a message

7. Ignore it and click OK

8. NSM is now disabled. reconnect to the internet and there will be no monitoring of activity.

 

This method also works for extending time.

 

I was astonished that such a simple loophole has not been discovered before. I can't help wondering whether any of the seemingly harmless times I have seen the disabled message were really times in which my kids were wandering the internet unmonitored.

 

David

[The following additional point was in my previous post but it seems to have got lost on its way to the forum]

 

The next time you log in to Online Family you will see the message:

Norton Safety Minder was disabled on a computer

 

but we see that so often as a false alarm we would probably ignore it.

That is a serious flaw. And this adds urgency to solving the problem of the false alarms.

 

I have not tested that method for disabling NSM, but if it works broadly then I think there has to be a very rapid response from Norton/Symantec here. Bad enough that we have beat the drum on the "NSM has been disabled" false messages and had little response and no resolution. To find that the program is potentially shut down by a five year old is stunning- this isn't some covenient browser plug-in that might need a patch, this is software we're prptecting our kids with. I recognize that we're not paying for it just yet, but we've spent lots of other money with Symantec over the years and now annually with Norton 360 here on 5 PCs in my house alone. The decision to make this free while they beta test it is theirs, but does not lessen the urgency with which an abject failure of the software should be addressed (if not acknowledged with more than a closed <other> thread that got casually ,arked SOLVED.

 

OK, taking deep breath, let's see if a few of us really can shut down NSM as easily as posted above and report back with the OS version we're running etc. Once we confirm that this needs to be addressed fast because I have witnessed my own kids searching for "how to disxxxle Norton Safety Minder" to find a thread like this one. If this gaping vulnerability is correct, and let's see if it is, then it needs A) its own thread and B) an official Software QA acknowledgement and patch from Symantec immediately.

 

I'll be testing the method above on various PCs and a Mac here as I am able. More to follow.

OK, that didn't take long. I followed the instructions and shut it down in our child's account in less than 30 seconds.

I switched user on a Windows Vista laptop to my stepson's account which is a Standard User and not an Administrator.

I couldn't get the wireless switch on this Dell laptop to shut off the 802.11 wireless so i just clicked on the network icon and chose 'Dicsonnect from Network XXXXXXX'.

When I could see I was disconnected I clicked on NSM in the System Tray and chose 'Disable Norton Safety Minder'. I was prompted for a parent email and password and I typed in random characters.

I wasn't sure that took since it told me that wasn't correct so I did it again and I got prompted with "NSM is not sure about your credentials, do you want to continue and an email will be sent to your parent"?

I chose OK and BOOM...NSM was disabled- greyed out icon in Systra!

I immediately opened Firefox and proceeded to the playboy.com website which should have been blocked.

A minute later my Blackberry buzzed with one of so many NSM has been disabled warnings that I might easily have disregarded due to the original topic of this thread.

This is unfortunate and unacceptable. I guess we should start a separate thread for this that is properly titled.

Hi,

 

Let me clarify a few things here about Norton Safety Minder and how it works.

 

In an effort to ensure that the parents were notified when the Safety Minder was disabled, we enabled the ability for parents to be notified by email when it happens. 

 

The problem that is presenting itself here, is that the program does not distinguish between when the Safety Minder is disabled and when it crashes. 

 

What most of you are seeing is the result of an unexpected crash by the client. This can be caused by a variety of issues, including 3rd party software, malformed websites, and other unexpected conditions. 

 

The good news is that Norton Safety Minder was designed with a layered architecture such that if the program crashes, it's designed to restart itself.  

 

The bad news is that when it restarts, it recognizes that it was shut off and sends a notification to the server. 

 

ZX81's observation of two tray icons is an indicator that the program crashed and successfully restarted itself. If you were to click on one of those two icons, it would disappear because it is no longer functional. 

 

Mijacar's point that it may be related to older or slower machines is not accurate. Norton Safety minder places a very low load on system resources as it's working, this goal was a principle design element.  I do recommend, however, to make sure that older machines are completely updated, and have the most recent browser upgrades available. 

 

Tazman's issue with disabling the safety minder without an internet connection is discussed in depth in this thread, and a fix for that issue will be in the next release of Norton Safety Minder, which you can expect soon. 

 

Currently, there's not enough evidence to suggest that the type of internet connection (wired or wireless) has anything to do with Norton Safety Minder. Most of it's operations take place above that network layer.

 

A more plausible indicator would be the browser type or OS type, in connection with a 3rd party piece of software, or website, which is proving to be difficult for the Safety Minder to handle. 

 

A variety of crashes have been fixed, so hopefully you can expect a better performing program to be released in the near future. Any additional information about what the children were doing, or what types of behaviors that may be unique to those machines which are experiencing crashes would be helpful. 

 

so to sum up:

 

1 - Norton Safety Minder does not distinguish between a crash and when it is disabled (we will take a look at perhaps trying to differentiate).

 

2 - When the safety minder crashes, it will restart itself, so in the case where there was no tampering, protection can be restored to the

child's machine. 

 

3 - Norton Safety Minder is small and lightweight, and is compatible with older machines. It's designed to be a low load on system resources.

 

4 - The bug of disabling the client without an internet connection has been identified and is fixed in the latest version to be released very soon. 

 

 

Thanks all for your input.