Thanks for posting, this is great stuff!
whbos wrote: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.
whbos,
Thanks for the frank post--it's helpful for us to see our users' perception from all sides. I did want to make a few comments, however, to further the discussion:
As an FYI, all of the Norton Premium Services hotlines are staffed by experienced Technical Support-type personnel, and are based in North America (with the exception of our Virus & Spyware Removal Service). There will be no cultural boundary between you and our team, and they will understand your concerns--both technical and non-technical.
That said, contacting a human isn't for everybody. If you're a power user who likes to be in constant control of your computer and configure it the way you want it, then I'd suggest modifying the Power Management settings directly in Windows.
Regarding the effect of managing your power options in Windows, it's actually pretty substantial. In addition to the $25 - $75 that you can save per year (as per the EPA, a government agency--see my original post for a link), the following site outlines the actual percentage of power savings rendered by these options:
http://www.terranovum.com/projects/energystar/standby_v_hiber.html
You'll notice that System Standby reduces their computer's power consumption by 95%! If you apply this on a national level, where I believe 2% of all power consumption is attributed to personal computers (citation needed), the effect is obvious. Regardless of your use of the Norton Green service, I would contend that the effect of many individuals is substantial. To your excellent point, however, many power companies are starting to offer "green" options--I'd suggest contacting your provider, or investigating alternatives. On a personal note, I switched over to a "green" provider in February, and my energy bill only increased $10/month--pretty amazing, when you think about it.
Anyway, whbos, as I mentioned, your feedback is great and I'm hoping it can help us provide a more clear communication regarding what the service is, and how power management relates to the world where we live.
-Sean
(P.S. Regarding your computer's slow speed, there is a good post here about some steps you might take to improve the performance:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=138
..also, if you don't feel like going through the whole process yourself, we offer a PC Tune-up service to optimize your system:
http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/premium_services/premium_tuneup.jsp
And, some insider info for you and the rest of our forum users: We're currently updating our PC Tune-up steps to make them more robust and focused on things that make an immediate impact to the computer. We will have this new process in place on or around May 23rd, so if you are interested in having the service performed, I'd suggest waiting until this date--I'm hoping our performance improvements will go from "good" to "amazing".)
Message Edited by sean_conrad on 05-02-2008 04:39 PM
StekertJ wrote:
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
Jim,
I'm sorry for the delay--the ins and outs of how our products handle Sleep mode are actually more complex than you would think. ;)
What I know so far is that NAV and NIS are not designed to wake the system on these events. I would encourage you to experiment with the check box that I recommended earlier for the Full System Scan task, however, and I would suggest the same for One-Button Checkup.
Regarding Ghost and the Speed Disk tasks, my investigation is still pending. I will make another post as soon as I have more information.
-Sean
Message Edited by sean_conrad on 05-02-2008 04:40 PM
Great innitiative