Let me preface this by saying I know nothing about computers, so don't talk about dll's or rootfixes or executable files bec I will have no idea what you're talking about!
My mother had NIS installed on her PC by the computer geeks at Staples a few weeks ago bec even though she had NAV they said she had a whole bunch of spyware and stuff and she NEEDED NIS. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks and then the computer could no longer access the Internet. By Googling with another computer, we found out that it was the firewall with NIS that was causing the problem and that the only solution was to uninstall NIS...BUT we found out you can't just uninstall it with Add/Remove programs, you had to have a special "removal tool" downloaded from the symantec.com. BUT how can we download the removal tool without being able to access the Internet? My mother decided to just shove the computer into the basement and forget about it since it (a Dell) has been a pain in the butt ever since she got it and she's spent more to "fix" the stupid thing than it was worth.
So then a week or so later I go buy myself a new laptop (Toshiba) and it has NIS pre-installed as a trial for 30-days. I'm now about 20 days into it and while things seem to be okay, I am very, very scared that NIS will ruin my computer as well. I've seen nothing but bad things about NIS around the Internet. In principle it seems to be a really good program, but from experience I'm not so sure.
So when the 30 days runs out, I was planning on just installing regular NAV 2009, but now I'm afraid that isn't going to be enough to protect my laptop. What should I do? I know this is a "pro-Norton" site, so of course I expect to hear "Norton is a fine and wonderful product", but really, can I have some un-biased opinions?
Will NIS hurt my computer? Will it end up screwing up the firewall so I can't access the Internet and/or remove it? Will installing only basic NAV 2009 leave my computer vulnerable? If so, then why does Norton even sell it? What if NIS ruins my computer, how do I fix it or is it ruined forever? I heard that NIS was too powerful for most older computers (someone likened it to putting a nuclear submarine in a lake) and that's probably the problem with my mother's computer (XP w/ 512 memory) but I have Vista (with a free Windows 7 upgrade in the near future) with 3GB of memory, so maybe my computer can handle NIS?
I'm just afraid that if I go with NIS that it'll screw up my computer completely or if I go with NAV it won't be enough (because it doesn't have a firewall or something, but didn't it used to bec NAV is all I have ever used) and my shiny new laptop will get irrevocably screwed up.
Sorry to make my first post such a long one, I just don't want to make the wrong decision.
Hi stenobook,
Firewalls often get the blame for connectivity issues since they filter all of your computer's communications. But there are countless other things that can cause these problems. If you didn't actually uninstall NIS and put the computer back online to see if that resolved the issue, it is impossible to know if NIS was the cause of your situation. Since the computer had previously been infected, it is possible that malware had been reintroduced onto the PC or that not all of it was removed. I would suggest taking it back to Staples and having them look it over again at their expense.
On a clean system such as your new laptop NIS should not cause any problems at all. With any software as complex and tied into the operating system as an antivirus program, an online search for any product will turn up people experiencing one difficulty or another. Remember that people having no problems are not posting online generally about how smoothly everything is working. And the most vocal critics are often dealing with problems of their own creation because they do not understand the product or how to use it. So you need to use some judgment when evaluating what you read online (yes, this is definitely a "Pro-Norton site").
The advantage of a suite such as NIS for most users is that you don't have to be a security expert, since all the components work together flawlessly. There are no compatibility issues between the AV and the firewall, and you do not have to configure separate programs so that they play nice together. I would recommend that you stay with NIS.
Let me preface this by saying I know nothing about computers, so don't talk about dll's or rootfixes or executable files bec I will have no idea what you're talking about!
My mother had NIS installed on her PC by the computer geeks at Staples a few weeks ago bec even though she had NAV they said she had a whole bunch of spyware and stuff and she NEEDED NIS. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks and then the computer could no longer access the Internet. By Googling with another computer, we found out that it was the firewall with NIS that was causing the problem and that the only solution was to uninstall NIS...BUT we found out you can't just uninstall it with Add/Remove programs, you had to have a special "removal tool" downloaded from the symantec.com. BUT how can we download the removal tool without being able to access the Internet? My mother decided to just shove the computer into the basement and forget about it since it (a Dell) has been a pain in the butt ever since she got it and she's spent more to "fix" the stupid thing than it was worth.
So then a week or so later I go buy myself a new laptop (Toshiba) and it has NIS pre-installed as a trial for 30-days. I'm now about 20 days into it and while things seem to be okay, I am very, very scared that NIS will ruin my computer as well. I've seen nothing but bad things about NIS around the Internet. In principle it seems to be a really good program, but from experience I'm not so sure.
So when the 30 days runs out, I was planning on just installing regular NAV 2009, but now I'm afraid that isn't going to be enough to protect my laptop. What should I do? I know this is a "pro-Norton" site, so of course I expect to hear "Norton is a fine and wonderful product", but really, can I have some un-biased opinions?
Will NIS hurt my computer? Will it end up screwing up the firewall so I can't access the Internet and/or remove it? Will installing only basic NAV 2009 leave my computer vulnerable? If so, then why does Norton even sell it? What if NIS ruins my computer, how do I fix it or is it ruined forever? I heard that NIS was too powerful for most older computers (someone likened it to putting a nuclear submarine in a lake) and that's probably the problem with my mother's computer (XP w/ 512 memory) but I have Vista (with a free Windows 7 upgrade in the near future) with 3GB of memory, so maybe my computer can handle NIS?
I'm just afraid that if I go with NIS that it'll screw up my computer completely or if I go with NAV it won't be enough (because it doesn't have a firewall or something, but didn't it used to bec NAV is all I have ever used) and my shiny new laptop will get irrevocably screwed up.
Sorry to make my first post such a long one, I just don't want to make the wrong decision.