Norton Internet Security
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:09 PM (18 years ago) by Matt FreedmanSo, since it was on sale, I went out and bought NIS 2007, about a week ago, and I had some problems with it. First of all, it installed flawlessly, with no error, which was good. I had to restart my computer a few times (which is annoying, but w/e) after installing updates for it, but that’s normal. Then, when I have it all good and setup the way I want it, I open up IE7 and go to a site, open a new tab, go to another site, the usual, then, when I closed a tab, I get a “Internet Explorer has encountered an error and needs to close.” window. So, I try it again, open IE7, open a tab, close the tab. I got the error again. Since this wasn’t happened before, I thought it must be NIS.
So, I go to Symantec’s site, and go to Support, Technical (or whatever the “tree” is) and there are 3 options. Live Chat, Phone Support and Email. Well, the Phone Support costs $30 USD, and the Email could take days to get a reply to, so, naturally, I chose Live Chat (which, by the way, should “Estimated Response Time” 15 Minutes. Which is fine, I was willing to wait 15 Minutes). So, I logged in to their Live Chat, and 45 mins later, a Support Technician is assigned to my case. So, I tell the guy what the problem is, and he has to escalate me to another Support Technician. So, I had to go through the usual tests, disable such-and-such parts of NIS and test it, etc… Then, since none of those things worked, I had to take NIS off my startup and restart my computer. Which I was fine with. But, I had to start live chat again and wait for another Technician and then reference the case number. Which I wasn’t so fine with, but I went along with it, just because I wanted to get this resolved.
So, I restart my computer without NIS loading, and I try IE, and the problem is still there. But, this time IE gave me some information that an add-on had caused it and the name and maker of the add-on. It was one of Symantec’s add-ons for the Phishing Filter included with NIS. So, I boot my computer back up with NIS and go back into Live Chat. This time, it took about 20 mins to get a reply. Then, another 15 mins waiting so the Technician could read over the case. Then I mentioned about the add-on error, and they said try disabling it, and try it (which I had already done, and it didn’t work, but I did find another of Symantec’s add-ons and disabled it. It fixed the problem). So, I asked if it was safe to disable this add-on, and they said yes. So, I disabled it. Then, I asked if Symantec had a bug reporter so that I could report the bug. They wouldn’t answer that question and just said “It’s a conflict between IE7 and NIS”. Which is sorta true, but the problem lies with Symantec’s add-on, so it has something to do with the programming of it. I tried to explain this to them, but they just kept saying “It’s a conflict between IE7 and NIS”. So, I’m just thinking to myself, screw it, I’m ending this Live Chat.
So, I have the add-on disabled. The add-on is called “Norton Confidential Browser Helper Object”. Which, powers the “Show Norton Toolbar” (which is a toolbar that shows if the page has been identified as fraudulent or not). So, you can go ahead and disable that to.
Yep, I was on live chat with Symantec for over 3 hours and I never really got the problem fixed, more of just a cover up of the problem. But, w/e.
Update [January 4, 2007]: A Crimeware Update came through LiveUpdate, so I decided to see if the add-ons were still screwed up, they are. 😛 Now NIS is telling me that my Protection Updates are out of date, when, in fact, they shouldn’t be. Since I did update them (plus they update automatically), plus when I run LiveUpdate, it says that all my Norton Components are up to date. So, I don’t know what’s going on with it. I suppose I’ll have to get in contact with Symantec, again…
Update [January 31, 2007]: If you’re planning on upgrading to Vista, go here and download the trial version of NIS 2007 and install it onto Vista. Then, activate it with your product key for NIS 2007. The trial (which becomes the full version once you activate it) has a new look to it (in Vista, at least), has a new feature called SONAR and works completely with Vista and the problem it the IE7 add-ons no longer exists.
Update [February 17, 2007]: It appears that the Trial Version of Norton Internet Security 2007 fixes the problem with the add-ons for IE7, even under XP (thanks, Scott McChesney, for confirming this). So, try downloading that trial, uninstalling NIS 2007, installing the download, and activating it with your NIS 2007 key. That should fix the problem with the NIS 2007 IE7 add-ons.
Update [March 29, 2007]: Symantec has shipped out a new version of NIS 2007 to stores, so the problems are fixed on it and it has a new look to it. LiveUpdate should probably download this new version for you, I’m not sure, though.
Find something useful here? Feel free to help me out by sending a donation. :)
24 Responses to “Norton Internet Security”
January 14th, 2007 at 7:53 PM |
I had exactly the same experience – two cycles with symantec. Using a clean boot (just microsoft services) IE7 worked fine. A clean boot with MS and Symantec services, IE7 crashes if you close any tab, pop up, etc.
Symantec cleanly knows they have a problem but really resist acknowledging it. Note – when pushed they will refund your purchase price – because they can’t solve the problem. Even as they issue a refund in the transcript below – they state that NIS and IE7 are “compatible”.
Be sure to demand a refund – they have no solution in site and you paid for a full package. Their solution is equivalent to buying a car in which the headlights don’t work and the dealer suggests the solution is to not drive at night.
Shakul(Sun Jan 14 18:16:46 EST 2007): Shall I provide refund for the purchase now/
DPF(Sun Jan 14 21:18:03 EST 2007): Thank you
DPF(Sun Jan 14 21:19:00 EST 2007): Yes please
Shakul(Sun Jan 14 18:18:57 EST 2007): David, please hold for 2 minutes while I provide the refund.
DPF(Sun Jan 14 21:20:23 EST 2007): Is it possible the install of Symantec damaged IE7?
Shakul(Sun Jan 14 18:20:25 EST 2007): No. Norton Internet Security 2007 program is compatible with IE 7.
Shakul(Sun Jan 14 18:20:39 EST 2007): David, I have successfully credited your account.
January 21st, 2007 at 1:41 PM |
[…] Armed with the knowledge that IE7 was working fine, I could now set about looking for the offending Add-on. Without beating about the bush, it turns out that it was the Norton Internet Security Add-on that was causing all the problems: disabling it forced NIS to go in search of a fix for itself, which, to my amazement, it found. It would appear that I am not alone, others are having similar problems as this post suggests. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 7:57 PM |
Here’s another confirmation of the problem.
For about the past 4-months, I have been using NIS 2006 very successfully. A week ago, in preparation for a possible move to Vista, I decided to upgrade to NIS 2007 (that’s Symantec’s free path for NIS 2006 users who have active subscriptions). In doing so, Symantec explained that some of the features in NIS 2006 would be lost, but that they could be reinstalled with an add-on. After I installed both NIS 2007 and its add-on, I noticed that whenever I closed either an IE7 tab or an IE7 window, IE7 crashed and a pop-up window appeared with the message “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”
I have only begun playing with the NIS options and IE7’s options. If anyone finds a combination that seems to work, please post your enabled/disabled settings.
January 30th, 2007 at 8:06 PM |
Hmm, strange, I guess I wasn’t the only one. 😛
When you do upgrade to Vista, go here:
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/themes/vista/compatibility.jsp
Download the 15-Day Trial of NIS 2007, and then install it and activate it with your pre-existing key for NIS 2007. Once I upgraded (well, I did a clean install…), and install/activated the trial of NIS 2007, it worked fine. That problem doesn’t seem to affect Vista with that updated version of NIS that is within the trial.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:37 PM |
For now, under Windows XP, I am able to avoid the problem (the same way as you?) by disabling all of Symantec’s Add-ons in IE7. From IE7, click Tools / Manage Add-ons / Enable or Disable Add-ons… I clicked on the following two add-ons and clicked the Disable radio button for each: “Show Norton Toolbar” and “Norton Confidential Browser Helper Object”. With those two add-ons disabled, IE7 does not crash when I close tabs or windows. For now, I’ll hope that Symantec eventually fixes their problem so I can re-enable the add-ons.
Matt, thanks very, very much for posting this information. There isn’t much discussion about this problem on the web right now, at least not that I could find with Google and Yahoo. I was searching for uibho.dll, NIS 2007 IE7 crashes and other such keywords, but this web page helped me much more than any of the others.
February 4th, 2007 at 9:07 AM |
Thanks for the info about IE add-ons, i tried it and it seems to wrok better now.
February 11th, 2007 at 2:42 AM |
Great information. I recently purchased NIS and have been experiencing this problem. The whole family is on my case. Turning off the Norton Confidential Browser Helper Object add-on fixed the problem. I’ll be in line soon to get my money back too.
Thank you.
Gene
February 17th, 2007 at 1:35 PM |
FINALLY!!!! After a long and fruitless conversation with Symantec’s “Technical Support” via e-mail, I ended up at the same place you are. While my e-mails were promptly replied to, the “technical support representative” suggested the following fixes:
1. Your version of IE 7 is either missing some support files, or they are corrupted. Re-install IE 7.
(Uh, what? I didn’t start having this problem until I installed NIS 2007, so if my IE 7 install is corrupted, didn’t your software do it???)
2. Uncheck the “Enable third-party browser extensions” option in IE 7.
(Yeah – that fixes it. But it also gets rid of all my other toolbars – you know, things I use every day. But in a burst of insanity, I decided to try the “re-install IE 7” option – just to see if I was completely off-base here. When that didn’t work…)
3. Re-check the “Enable third-party browser extensions” checkbox and see if the problem still exists. If so, this is a “conflict with other system softwares [sic]”, and I should contact my system vendor.
(In other words, it’s not us, you can’t convince me it is, and please stop bothering me.)
So I went through what everyone else did here, and ended up where you all are. At least now I know I’m not crazy.
I know how difficult this kind of thing can be (I program for a living), but it’s like they don’t even try…
Scott
February 17th, 2007 at 2:13 PM |
Yes, turning off those add-ons does seem to help. But, nobody knows if this has an affect on the Anti-Virus part of NIS 2007 (it shouldn’t). Of course, by disabling those Norton add-ons, you no longer get the Norton Phishing Filter, but IE7 already has one built-in, so it’s fine… Symantec seems to have released a new version of NIS 2007, which is Vista compatible. Apparently, it can come through LiveUpdate, I’m not sure if that’s true though. But, what you can try is to go download the trial of NIS 2007, here:
NIS 2007 Trial
Uninstall NIS 2007, install the one you just downloaded and activate it with your NIS 2007 key. That may fix the problems in with IE7 in XP, I know it did in Vista, but I don’t have a computer with XP and NIS 2007 installed on it to test it. So, try that, it’s worth a shot, if it doesn’t work, just keep that add-on disabled, I guess.
I think that Symantec just doesn’t want to admit that they screwed up. Especially since even a small amount of testing with IE7 would have revealed this bug to them…
February 17th, 2007 at 6:51 PM |
I am running XP and IE 7, and the new version Matt referenced does seem to fix the problem on XP as well. You have no idea how irritated that makes me…
At least I have something that works now. Thanks for all your help!
– Scott
February 17th, 2007 at 7:01 PM |
I’m glad I could help.
Well, at least Symantec did do something about the problem. Too bad they’re never going to admit that the problem was with them, and not IE7, like they tried to convince me.
Yes, the whole situation was frustrating and annoying for me, too. Especially since I spent many hours on their LiveChat trying to get it resolved, when I had to end up troubleshooting it and fixing it myself. In fact, the second time I was on LiveChat, I was the one recommending what I should check for, not them. Companies really need to start training their employees to not read out of a book (or Document) and actually know the product they’re dealing with inside and out. But, whatever.
February 17th, 2007 at 8:45 PM |
I guess I’m getting used to knowing more than the guy on the other end of the phone – which is a sad statement in and of itself. This is not the first time I’ve known more about the product than the CS/TS person I get on the phone. I mean, five minutes with Google can often get me further than the people being paid to answer the phone.
(Though, in this case, it took me almost three days…)
What probably irritated me the most is that the guy never even asked about versions, or recommended upgrading – he just automatically assumed NIS was working perfectly, and it must be something else. Sure, it could have been a conflict with another piece of software I had on my machine – but when the problem starts after I installed NIS, and it goes away when I disable/uninstall NIS…
February 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 AM |
I had just installed Windows Ultimate and guess what it worked great until………I installed Norton Confidential, immediately IE7 locked up when it loaded up. I will try to disable the add on right now this is crazy….
February 28th, 2007 at 10:18 PM |
Allan: Are you installing Norton Internet Security, or Norton Confidential? If you’re not installing Norton Internet Security, I don’t think this post will help you, especially since I don’t have Norton Confidential (except for the stuff packaged in NIS). Sorry.
–Matt
March 4th, 2007 at 1:43 PM |
my response to Symantec tech support was….
I WAS ABLE to download and install the Norton addon pak. However, after
installing norton Internet security on my computer, my computer now takes a
long long long time to boot up, and browser windows will not remain open
making my computer pretty much useless for using the internet. I wish I
could get a refund for this s**ty software (NIS 2007) but since I can’t, I
will send and email to all the shopping and banking sites that I use
informing them that YOUR SOFTWARE IS PROBABLY PREVENTING MANY, MANY PEOPLE FROM SHOPPING THEIR SITES ON THE NET IF THEIR CUSTOMERS HAVE INSTALLED YOUR c**p ON THEIR SYSTEMS!!! If you’ve had the same experience as me, imagine logging ongto a website, entering all your info, choosing your items to buy, proceeding to checkout, then, when clicking on the “submit ” button, the window closes!!! Then, you start the process all over again, only to get the same thing happen AGAIN! After this, you go to the STORE to buy the item you wanted. No more internet shopping for me as long as NIS is on my PC!!!
Perhaps as the word spreads about NIS 2007, people will not buy it and ruin their computers!!!! Now, I have to go buy MORE
antivirus software, in addition to the $100 i already spent for the Norton
c**p, not to mention all the time wasted trying to figure this out, and uninstall this junk form my PC.
By the way, I DID download the recommended
Title: ‘Updating your Norton 2007 product to the latest 2007.2 product’
Document ID: 2007012509333013
> Web URL:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2007012509333013?Open&src=con_ols_nam
as instructed, and when I installed the product, I got a message telling me
my subscription had EXPIRED!!!! Then I used the Norton removal tool to
remove all Norton versions from my computer, and reinstalled NIS from the
disk. Now the message shows taht is have 351 days remaining in my
subcription (which is correct) but alas, now my browser windows will not
stay open again. I wasted nearly and entire DAY trying to get this problem
fixed, and I am still experiencing the problem.
UNLESS I GET A REFUND OR A SOLUTION TO THIS SITUATION, I WILL NEVER BUY
NORTON OR SYMANTEC S**T (PRODUCTS)
AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW, I MUST GO TO BUY MORE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SO I CAN USE MY COMPUTER!!!
This message will be sent to all my contacts, as well as my online banking
and credit sties, and all the sites I shop on to warn them that YOUR
SOFTWARE is probably costing THEM business!!!!
———-
MY ADVICE: DON’T BUY IT!!!
March 9th, 2007 at 4:36 PM |
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! for posting all this. I have been having exactly the problem you described with closing IE7 windows after installing NIS 2007. On a whim, I searched google to see if it was something common and came to your blog. You have saved me hours, if not days of frustration. Thank you for posting this.
May 12th, 2007 at 7:02 PM |
My kids are now making jokes about my Norton Anitvirus life..
They want to know when I am going to put it on my cell phone. They love to bust my chops over all thetime I have wasted with Symantec… It has been at least 40 hours in the last two months.
I too have had all the problems listed on this site but I am afraid to go to IE7 for fear it will get worse.
I received a free release of this God Awful product becuase their tech support team screwed my PC up so bad that I had to do a System Restore.
DO NOT let them remote into your system under any circumstance. They are totally inept.
I am seriously thinking of removing it all together and going to McAfee… ANy comments on whether that is a bad or good idea.
Yours truly, another NIS misfit who doesn’t know when to quit a product that doesn’t work
Jerry
May 12th, 2007 at 7:27 PM |
Have you tried uninstalling NIS 2007 and installing the NIS 2007.2 Trial and then activating it with your product key?
NIS 2007.2 Trial
I haven’t personally used McAfee, but I’ve heard it’s good.
–Matt
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 AM |
Hi all!..
I have been reading all your posts above and i have experienced a similar problem myself.. :O(,
Only i’m using “Norton 360” my problem was the following..
After installing “Norton 360” every time i went into internet explorer and then closed it and error message appeared saying..
Acrobat IEHelper: iexplore.exe
-Application Error.
Which i found very annoying so i decided to see if i could find some solution to my problem after a lot of reading and going into various sites, posts, forums etc, i came across a possible fix or workaround as you mite call it.
I went into “Internet Explorer” and at the top of screen i went into: Tools/Manage Add-ons.. after that a window will appear listing all currently loaded Add-ons i then tried disabling/enabling one by one only to find that the culprit was the so called “Norton Confidential Brower Helper Object” Add-on after disabling it the error message went away.. :O) so if your experiencing the same problem try it, this worked for me.. anyway hope this helps!. . Cya.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:02 AM |
I have had the same problem too from SW downloaded from the Symantec site. Surely this should be the most up todate sw and include fixes to known problems.
If this was car there would be a recall.
Will try the trial version and see where I get to.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:44 AM |
I had the same problem with Norton 360 and IE6. I went three rounds with Symantec Chat; round 1 tried to convince me that I needed to reinstall IE. I politely disengaged myself from someone that was obviously following a book, or more probably, just guessing. Round 2 was slightly more knowledgeble and started by asking to run a remote in. Against my better judgement I said “ok” but recorded the screen just in case. Strangely enough, he went to the right place (Add-ins) but didn’t seem to know why he was there and so stated disabling everything in sight. I politely took over control and disengaged a second time. Round 3 went right for the add-ins, disabled the NCBHO, and thanked me for contacting Symantec. So, what’s the lesson here? Actually there’s two. First, if your Symantec “agent” doesn’t correct the problem immediately, disengage and try going for another agent. Obviously, not all agents are created, or trained, equal. Lesson two? Symantec has some code that evidently can’t be fixed… live w/o the phishing app or get your money back and go somewhere else.
June 21st, 2008 at 7:36 PM |
After a whole frustrating month of IE locking up when I close windows, I disabled ALL add-ons and then enabled them one by one, testing after re-enabling which one caused the IE lockup. I came to the same conclusion as all of the previous posts: Norton Confidential Browser Helper is the culprit. I must have somehow accidentally enabled in back in May and didn’t know what I had done. Hopefully, Symantec will fix this problem. Hopefully, LiveUpdate is NOT what started this s**t in the first place!
I’ve always had to keep the Phishing filter turned off on NIS, ever since I first got this program. Now I know why. I would appreciate it if anyone knows if this issue gets corrected. Would really like to take a look at the script that NCBHO is trying to do when you request to close IE. There’s gotta be something in the exit routine that’s the culprit.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:09 AM |
Terry Long: I believe Symantec fixed this issue quite awhile ago. Try downloading a trial of the version you have (if it’s still available), and installing that (the trial version are usually the latest version available).
August 28th, 2008 at 6:17 AM |
Terry Long: It is still rellevnt?
I agree with Matt you can download new trial