So, 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.
