Two questions in one

I was using a Japanese version of Norton AntiVirus for Mac from 2 or 3 years ago but after a year I didn't renew my subscription right away. Now I've returned to Canada and bought Norton AntiVirus 11 (my Mac is 10.6.8) and installed it, figuring that should cover my subscription renewal. However, it's still telling me my subscription needs to be renewed, and when I try LiveUpdate for one of the downloads it says "Not downloaded due to expired subscription".

 

The other issue is that since I installed the new one yesterday, I have constantly (a few times a minute) been getting messages in my Activity Log that ARP Cache Poison has been blocked. Looking online, I've found a couple of places saying that ARP Cache Poison messages are likely a false positive, so normally I wouldn't be too worried--especially because these messages started exactly when I installed the new one.

 

My solution for the subscription issue was going to be to uninstall Norton from my computer, which would hopefully get rid of remnants of the old version of Norton, and then I could reinstall my new one with a clean slate. However, what if Norton is actually blocking ARP Cache Poison attacks, as the messages say? If I temporarily unistall my Norton will I be leaving myself defenseless to these attacks?

The easiest "solution" for the ARP Cache Poison issue is to disable the ARP Cache Poison notification (but leave the vulnerability protection for ARP Cache Poison enabled).  This way your computer is still protected if any of these "attacks" did end up being malicious, yet you're not getting spammed with repeated Activity Log messages/notifications.

 

There was a bug regarding this issue that was fixed in NAV 12.  Unfortunately, it won't be fixed in NAV 11, as Symantec is apparently not going back and fixing bugs in the Snow Leopard version of their software.

 

If you're curious, you can find more information in one of several threads about ARP Cache Poison from 2011.

 

As for the subscription renewal issue, due to the way that Symantec currently handles licenses, it's not possible to renew an existing subscription license using a product activation key.  You'd need a subscription renewal key to continue your old subscription.

 

Unfortunately, uninstalling the old version and installing the new product does not remove the old subscription license details, so there's no easy solution for replacing an old subscription needing renewal with a different license from the new product.

 

Your best bet for the subscription renewal problem is to contact Symantec Customer Support, and see if they'd replace/exchange the product activation key with a subscription renewal key.

 

Sadly, subscription renewal vs. new product activation has been a long-standing problem with the older software, and many customers get tripped up by buying the software again, when Symantec requires them to purchase subscription renewals instead.

 

Sorry that there's not much good news there about NAV 11, but I hope the information will point you in the right direction in getting your subscription renewed, and disabling the Activity Log spam.

Dear karigane,

Thank you so much! I contacted Symantec Customer Support, and they kindly gave me a subscription key to use instead of my product key. So that's solved.

 

And as you suggested I disbaled the ARP Cache Poision alert (but left vulnerability protection enabled) so as much as that's a solution, that's solved, too. Thanks again!