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**Update, 05/02/08: Our free promotion that ran for the month of April is now over. The feedback we got from the forums was excellent--thank you all very much! The Norton Green service is still available on our website for $14.95 (www.norton.com/gogreen). If you have a chance to try it out, please leave your feedback on this thread!
Hi everyone!
My name is Sean Conrad, and I'm the Technical Product Manager for Norton Premium Services (a small team with a big goal: create phone-based computer services that matter to YOU, the Norton customer). I'm personally responsible for the technical strategy of our team, but what I'd like to talk about today is not very technical at all; what I'd like to talk about here is energy consumption, and how it relates to you and your computer.
The Norton Green service
With the approach of Earth Day and all it represents, our team recently launched the Norton Green service--a service designed to reduce your computer's power consumption.
The EPA suggests that the average user will save up to $75 per year per desktop computer by simply configuring their computer's power management options appropriately (see the following EPA website for more information: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_management), and they appear to have done their homework (their site is a wealth of information--I encourage you to check it out).
So, when we reviewed customer reactions to this concept, what we found surprised us. We found that our customers did want to do something good for the environment, by and large, but very few customers were aware that they could have such a significant impact by simply managing their computer's power options. When the idea of saving money entered the picture, people got even more excited. And the Norton Green service was born! :)
What's the bottom line?
Until April 30th, this service is being offered for free to all Norton customers, but what we're really interested in is feedback about the service from you, our most active and loyal Norton customers!
So give it a try. On us. Go to the following website, click Get Started, and follow the on-screen instructions:
www.norton.com/gogreen
And please feel free to post your comments and feedback in this thread--we'll have folks reading your responses and responding as often as time allows!
I look forward to hearing from you. Oh—and we’ll generally try to avoid announcements such as this on the forums, but we’re so excited about this free offer that we couldn’t resist. :)
Sean Conrad
Technical Product Manager
Norton Premium Services
Symantec Corporation
Is it for US only?
Stu,
Excellent question--forgot to cover this. ;)
We currently provide only a single, North America-based 800 number (you are presented with this number after downloading and installing the Norton Green application), but we're more than happy to talk to anyone who can call us at that number.
Although we do offer several services with regional phone numbers and language support (see the Norton.com Support pages in your region for details), Norton Green is currently only offered in English. Every day, we are working to bring a more services to more regions, but this is unfortunately not an simple process.
Thanks for the question, Stu. Please let me know if you have any more, or if you get a chance to sample the service!
-Sean
This was the first I saw after downloading. I will have a look at it later
So this means we can use it for 5 days and then we're nailed the big bucks to continue useage? A little like trial ware?
donahu1,
Another great question that I did not cover above--my apologies. :)
The Norton Green service is a one-time event (single incident), with no ongoing subscription or attachment. There are no strings attached--it is 100% free until April 30th, and the changes that we make to your power management will last as long as your computer. :)
For some additional background: The Norton Green application, available for download at www.norton.com/gogreen, exists purely to assist you get in touch with our Norton agents. You may download the Norton Green application (or any other available on www.norton.com/gopremium) with no risk--again, its design is purely to serve a phone number to you, and then facilitate the rest of the service delivery (and, in the end, leave you with something to reference if you ever want to recall the activities that took place after when you called). If you do want to use one of our fee-based services at some time in the future--or simply find out more about them--you may do so by calling the number inside the application that you downloaded.
So, in a very real way, this is a new approach to helping you talk to Symantec. I understand from your message that it might not be the most clearly presented, however. What could we do to better explain this process on the Norton Green home page? Your feedback would be most helpful. :)
-Sean
Stu wrote:
Great innitiative
I agree. The session went very well and with minimum fuss from this end. The tech on the other end was knowledgeable well beyond computer system "green issues," showed excellent interactive skills, and guided decisions/recommendations taking due account of the local working context, the system "mission" objectives, and the adminisrtative requirements (e.g., the network availability of peripherals and backup/maintenance schedules). If this session was indicative of the other offered services, and if the quality of the support staff remains equivalent, Symantec has started something worth buying.
A few minor suggestions:
A print function for both the general and specific findings/recommendations would be useful for the customer to document the session.
The available green recommendations should go beyond the existing system components and functions and include green suggestions or guidelines for use in purchasing of new systems or components (perhaps via a link to the knowledge base).
I may have missed it, but, for future system adjustments, it would be helpful to have available a printable, step-by-step log of all procedures used during the sessions.
-- Jim
I agree.
did someone already call the number?
Stu wrote:I agree.
did someone already call the number?
If you mean the number to initiate the Norton Green session, yes I did with the above results.
Which brings up another suggestion for Sean's request: It might clarify things if on the "Norton Premium Service" and "How it Works" pages it indicated that the support sessions are carried out under remote control while in continuous phone contact with the support tech.
-- Jim
Now, that was an experience. My ear has sweat on it from being on the phone for so long (35 minutes).....LOL
Actually a pleasant young lady in Canada, not India, talked me through the procedure and created a "Green Power Plan" in my power control panel. It was freaky to know she had such control of my computer. Watching her open and close windows with my mouse was something I hadn't encured before.
Next step is to walk away from my computer for a quick bite and know it will go to sleep in 10 minutes..Hmmm?
donahu1 wrote:Now, that was an experience. My ear has sweat on it from being on the phone for so long (35 minutes).....LOL
Actually a pleasant young lady in Canada, not India, talked me through the procedure and created a "Green Power Plan" in my power control panel. It was freaky to know she had such control of my computer. Watching her open and close windows with my mouse was something I hadn't encured before.
Next step is to walk away from my computer for a quick bite and know it will go to sleep in 10 minutes..Hmmm?
Thanx for your experience.
But What did you think of it?
I suppose Symantec's heart is in the right place but I've changed my Power plan back already. Somehow with Vista, everytime I put my computer to sleep, it knocks my network off. First thing I have to do is "repair" the network connection to get online. A real pain with Green PC placing my computer in sleep mode every 10 minutes I'm not on the machine. I generally check email almost hourly so you can understand why this is inconvienent.
When the time comes that a "fix" is available to correct the network problem, I may revert back to Green PC mode.
Also I was thrown off a bit when I first called because the first thing they ask for is a "client ID" Huh? It took some explaining why I was calling. The software ran gathering info for so long that the tech rep finally just had me log on to some website, "logmein.com". She then took control of my computer and did the set up with me watching. After that, we talked about what she did. She then logged off, gave control back to me, and I took a quiz. Sean never said we had to take a test!! LOL It was harmless and at least got me thinking of ways to help save some energy. After all, this is/was Earth Week......
StekertJ wrote:
Stu wrote:
Great innitiativeI agree. The session went very well and with minimum fuss from this end. The tech on the other end was knowledgeable well beyond computer system "green issues," showed excellent interactive skills, and guided decisions/recommendations taking due account of the local working context, the system "mission" objectives, and the adminisrtative requirements (e.g., the network availability of peripherals and backup/maintenance schedules). If this session was indicative of the other offered services, and if the quality of the support staff remains equivalent, Symantec has started something worth buying.
A few minor suggestions:
A print function for both the general and specific findings/recommendations would be useful for the customer to document the session.
The available green recommendations should go beyond the existing system components and functions and include green suggestions or guidelines for use in purchasing of new systems or components (perhaps via a link to the knowledge base).
I may have missed it, but, for future system adjustments, it would be helpful to have available a printable, step-by-step log of all procedures used during the sessions.
-- Jim
Jim,
Great to hear the experience was positive overall. :)
Regarding the 'Print' function, we actually do include this in our other "Report Card" implementations (PC Tune-up, PC Checkup), but we consciously omitted it from Norton Green--our thought was, why not save trees? ;) Still, good to know that some folks will want it--I will bring it up to the rest of the product management team and we'll probably have a heated discussion about the idea (the best kind!). :)
Regarding a "knowledge base" or other system of providing more tips that go beyond what we normally deliver on the phone, I like this idea quite a bit. I'll work with my research team and see if we can't get something published (either on the main www.norton.com/gogreen site, or perhaps as a link from the Report Card).
Regarding writing out the entire step-by-step procedure, we've investigated this in the past, and we keep finding that the majority of our target audience is turned off by this idea. A great deal of our research efforts go into deciding just how much to show you in the Report Card, and this is generally not included. Still, maybe there's a way to offer it to some users and not others, because I could see how this would be valuable as a more advanced user (such as yourself).
Regarding the "How it Works" pages, I will forward your feedback directly to our design group. This is something that we've been focusing on quite a bit, and we probably haven't found the right balance of "make it look easy" and "clearly explain what's about to happen".
Anyway, thanks for your feedback! Invaluable. I welcome this sort of post for everyone else reading this thread. :)
-Sean
donahu1 wrote:I suppose Symantec's heart is in the right place but I've changed my Power plan back already. Somehow with Vista, everytime I put my computer to sleep, it knocks my network off. First thing I have to do is "repair" the network connection to get online. A real pain with Green PC placing my computer in sleep mode every 10 minutes I'm not on the machine. I generally check email almost hourly so you can understand why this is inconvienent.
When the time comes that a "fix" is available to correct the network problem, I may revert back to Green PC mode.Also I was thrown off a bit when I first called because the first thing they ask for is a "client ID" Huh? It took some explaining why I was calling. The software ran gathering info for so long that the tech rep finally just had me log on to some website, "logmein.com". She then took control of my computer and did the set up with me watching. After that, we talked about what she did. She then logged off, gave control back to me, and I took a quiz. Sean never said we had to take a test!! LOL It was harmless and at least got me thinking of ways to help save some energy. After all, this is/was Earth Week......
donahu1,
Great, great feedback. We often learn the most from folks who have an unexpected experience.
Can you give me more information about your Sleep problem? I've heard of this happening with Hibernate, but not with Sleep. Are you on a wired network, or wireless? Does this happen every time? Are you on a laptop, or desktop? If you know how to find this out, are you using the default Windows network drivers, or the drivers from your network card's manufacturer?
If you search for "sleep network reset", there are several threads describing this problem on other sites. It looks like this has been reported elsewhere, though. See the following thread, where updating the network drivers fixed another user's problem:
http://forum.soft32.com/win4/Network-fails-sleep-ftopict167829.html
I'd love to help figure out what's wrong here, if you find time to respond. Chances are, if you're experiencing this, others will as well, and I'd hate for a software problem to stop us from cutting our power usage. If you'd like to work with me on this, but you're unsure how to find information about your network card and its drivers, please let me know--I'll be happy to go through it step-by-step.
Final question on the subject: If not for the network problem, would you have kept the power saving options as-is? Or did the frequent sleeping interfere in any other way?
Regarding the long wait time while trying to connect to LogMeIn, we have seen that in one other case. It's a rare one, but I have our Norton agents tracking this actively, so we'll keep a good pulse on how it affects our customers. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly why it's happening, but we'll solve it in time.
Anyway, most of all, I'm glad that the service got you thinking of other ways to save energy, and thanks for taking the time to call the service and document your feedback. If you find time to respond to the questions above, we'll see what we can do to get that network problem fixed. :)
-Sean
An update. I've been reading several forums on this problem with Vista knocking one off the network after sleep mode. Most of the forums had postings with my problem spelled out to a tee. I noticed that they were posted in 2007. That got me thinking. Sure enough, I went to Nvidia and updated the network controller, and VOILA! It worked and my problem is gone.
I switched back to Green PC power mode and after 3 sessions of sleep, I was not kicked off. So I think I will leave my system Green for the time being..
Thanks for all your interest in wanting to help me. You sent me in the right direction.
Sean,
During our green session, the tech and I agreed not to sleep-mode the system drives because of my scheduled backups and maintenance. I'm using XP (and will be for a while longer). Does anyone have an idea how to automatically wake up such a system in time for its scheduled events other than by jury rigging some kind of external timer with secure password login capability?
-- Jim
StekertJ wrote:Sean,
During our green session, the tech and I agreed not to sleep-mode the system drives because of my scheduled backups and maintenance. I'm using XP (and will be for a while longer). Does anyone have an idea how to automatically wake up such a system in time for its scheduled events other than by jury rigging some kind of external timer with secure password login capability?
-- Jim
Jim,
This is a great use case. It ventures slightly outside of what our current Services customer base would be doing with their computer, but I'd love to dive into this further--no doubt this will come up again!
First, if all of your events are using the Windows task scheduler, there might be a very simple solution. If you access the Task Scheduler (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks), you will hopefully see one or more of the desired tasks listed here. If so, right-click on any one of them and click Properties. On the Properties window, go to the Settings tab, and look for:
"Wake the computer to run this task."
Repeat for any and all tasks listed here that you don't want to miss. (This is actually a simple enough change that we might want to cover it while on the phone--I'll take a note to discuss this with the Norton agents.)
If none of your tasks are listed here, however, then this is more of a pickle and I fear the best solution may lie with the software vendors whose tasks you are running. You could create a new scheduled task which has the sole purpose of waking the system...but it sounds like you're against that idea (if I'm reading your post right). If nothing else, let me know what kind of tasks you're talking about, specifically--this will help us identify "types" of programs that may have trouble with the Windows power saving settings, and/or give me some more items to research.
-Sean
sean_conrad wrote:Jim,
This is a great use case. It ventures slightly outside of what our current Services customer base would be doing with their computer, but I'd love to dive into this further--no doubt this will come up again!
First, if all of your events are using the Windows task scheduler, there might be a very simple solution. If you access the Task Scheduler (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks), you will hopefully see one or more of the desired tasks listed here. If so, right-click on any one of them and click Properties. On the Properties window, go to the Settings tab, and look for:
"Wake the computer to run this task."
Repeat for any and all tasks listed here that you don't want to miss. (This is actually a simple enough change that we might want to cover it while on the phone--I'll take a note to discuss this with the Norton agents.)
If none of your tasks are listed here, however, then this is more of a pickle and I fear the best solution may lie with the software vendors whose tasks you are running. You could create a new scheduled task which has the sole purpose of waking the system...but it sounds like you're against that idea (if I'm reading your post right). If nothing else, let me know what kind of tasks you're talking about, specifically--this will help us identify "types" of programs that may have trouble with the Windows power saving settings, and/or give me some more items to research.
-Sean
Sean,
In addition to running Windows update and Symantec Auto LiveUpdate with Quick Scan, I currintly have weekly schedules set for Ghost 14 drive recovery point sets and file backups, NIS/NAV 2008 Full System Scan, NSW 2007 One Button Checkup, and NSW 2007 Speed Disk. Only the Full System Scan and the One Button Checkup appear in Win Scheduler. The others are resident program or OS controlled.
I haven't used the sleep mode setting on this desktop, but judging from that on my laptop, waking the system requires reentering the login password. I also have a password requirement on the desktop, so, even for those events controlled by Windows, it would seem that the issue remains of getting past the login on wakeup. I'm not opposed to a super event scheduler, but it would have to include a secure function to get past the login and protect the unattended system from intruders (possibly more than just blanking the monitor).
-- Jim
I downloaded the file, but didn't know there was a limit that ended on April 30th. I downloaded it too late thinking I had more time. Oh well. My computer is about five years old and slower than a dead snail. I have also had problems with .NET Framework programs interfering with other programs that use this add-on program and don't particularly want someone getting into my system unless they really know what they are doing.
I thought the download was a program that we could run to either fix or give suggestions as to make our computers "green." This whole concept might be good for the environment, but probably more hype than anything else. Energy costs for running our computers and everything else will go up no matter how much we try to save the environment. Until energy companies go green, we're just wasting our time. The bottom line is that someone will always profit from it and it won't be the consumer.