Norton Antivirus

Problems caused by 'e-mail protection feature' in Norton Antivirus

XADM: Error message cites logon problem and password rejection when you try to connect through pop3 client

"...This issue can occur if Norton AntiVirus is installed on the computer and the Norton e-mail protection program process, PoProxy.exe, is running. PoProxy.exe is a client component. If PoProxy.exe is installed on an Exchange Server computer, you must completely remove it. Simply disabling PoProxy.exe does not resolve the issue...."

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=298944

XCCC: Port 110 is not responding on Exchange 2000 Server

"...To resolve this issue, uninstall Poproxy.exe, which is part of Norton Antivirus 2000. Disabling Norton Antivirus does not resolve this issue, you have to uninstall the program...."

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q292522

OL2000: Internet mail account properties are changed by email protection in Norton Antivirus 2000

"...After you enable mail-message protection in Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2000, you may notice changes in your Internet mail account properties; your user name may change to user name/mail server and your mail server address may change to 127.0.0.1....If your internet service provider (ISP) requires secure password authentication, the server blocks access to your mail box when you enable Norton Antivirus 2000 email protection..."

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q271951

Same problem for Outlook 98:

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q272377

Same problem for Outlook Express:

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q272379

OL2000: You are not able to receive mail when you enable the Norton Antivirus 2000 email protection feature

"...This behavior occurs because the PoProxy.exe file component of the e-mail protection feature may not be loading during the system startup...."

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q262086

Norton now acknowledge that autoprotection of email is not necessary. As taken from their support site:

"Is my computer still protected against viruses if I disable Email Scanning?

Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses that are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect scans incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email and email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this. To make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have the most recent virus definitions."

Information from Symantec

Norton Antivirus has a tendency to stuff up your system in other ways - check out this URL regarding the following problem caused by NAV "...After deleting or quarantining a file that Norton AntiVirus has indicated as infected with a Trojan or a worm, you cannot start ANY [my emphasis] programs..."

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2000051114441106?Open&src=sg&docid=2000050720470906&nsf=nav.nsf&view=3b1b770c39af209f882569fc0060fe30&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=

Here is the cause of the problem... "...Many Trojans make changes to the Windows registry and system files. When Norton AntiVirus detects a file that is infected or created by a Trojan, you have the option to delete the file, or in some versions, to Quarantine it. (This may be done automatically if you have set NAV options to do so.) However, NAV will only remove the infected files--it does not repair the changes that the Trojan made to your system...."

As far as I'm concerned, if NAV is intelligent enough to identify a trojan/worm, it should be intelligent enough to do a 'proper' repair of a user's system.

Note that under "Method 1...Windows 95/98/Me.." and "Method 2: Only for Windows 95/98/Me" the article states "Click Start > Shut Down > "Restart in MS-DOS mode." Wait for the computer to restart to a DOS prompt..." There is NO 'restart in MS-DOS mode' on WindowsME systems. You will have to use a Win98 startup disk instead. On 22 February 2004 I submitted a comment advising them of the error - let's see how long it takes them to fix it.

Error message when you try to install Internet Explorer 6.0: a previous installation has pending work requiring a reboot

"...Norton Antivirus is one of the programs that can trigger this issue..."

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q309314

Norton Antivirus 2000 detects WM.Niceday Macro Virus when installing Microsoft Virtual Machine

"...This issue occurs because of a problem with the Norton Antivirus 2000 program (not the virus definitions)..."

http://support.microsoft.com?scid=kb;EN-US;Q244428

Norton Antivirus' autoprotect feature also disconnects users from the internet whenever they try to download using Internet Explorer. Norton’s fix? Disable autoprotect.

Also, users in Freeserve UK find they cannot download email after installing Norton Antivirus 2000/01. Again the advice is to turn off autoprotect.

Norton Antivirus causes OE6 to stop responding

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q309/6/76.asp

Also note that Norton Antivirus is known to cause two Messenger icons to appear in the systray near the clock. Norton knows about the problem, but the only workaround is turn off "run this programme when Windows starts" in Messenger.