The Aerie
I am currently 66 in the queue. Down from an initial 74.
I have a few home clients who I support, in part simply to keep my hand in practice for simple desktop support. It just helps to know how to do basic things, such as fix and upgrade Norton Antivirus.
I am currently 58 in the queue.
My client initially installed Norton Antivirus 2006, on my recommendation (because Norton is SUCH a quality product) a couple of years ago. At that time the installation glitched somehow, because whenever the system booted Norton would say "Does not support the repair feature."
This was annoying, but not prohibitive. You hit return at boot time, and the window didn't reappear until the next reboot. I spent a while trying to fix it, uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times, and then promised to come back when I had figured out the problem.
I am currently number 56 in the queue. By the way it's ten to eleven at night.
Well I went home, and researched... and couldn't find a fix. Instead it glitched the same way on my home computer. Eventually I forgot my promise to return, what with life and the fact that I never figured out what the hell was wrong.
I am currently number 46 in the queue.
Fast forward to today, my client asks me to return and check some stuff out. I fix the other stuff, then return to the ancient Norton problem. Visiting Symantec.com I find that Symantec says my client is eligible for an upgrade to
Norton AntiVirus 2007. Sure, I think, this will fix everything.
I am currently number 36 in the queue.
Of course that doesn't work. The new install gets to the Activation point, and says "An error has occurred during your activation." Thanks, really helpful.
I am currently number 32 in the queue.
I spin in place, trying to fix the problem for a while. One search turns up some stupid little SymKeydb.msi or something. I run that, it wants a reboot -everything frickin' wants a reboot. Doesn't work. So I go back to the page that gave the msi file to me, and click "that didn't work" and get handed to a chat page.
I enter the chat page and I'm number 35 in the queue.
i am currently number 29 in the queue.
So I wait... twenty minutes. I fix some of the other things wrong with the computer in the meantime - the client has deleted the Remote Desktop shortcut, for example, and is afraid the program must be reinstalled. For some reason the Remote Desktop application is called mstsc.exe or something. Thanks Microsoft, that was easy to find.
I am currently number 26 in the queue.
So by the time I finish that I'm at about number 10, so I wait. Eventually, like 25 minutes after I connected, I get some dope on the line. I can tell that he's working off a script - he asks a question and suddenly a three-line answer appears in the window. Cut. Paste. After discussion he insists the answer is to use the Norton Removal tool to remove everything, do a "clean boot" with msconfig, and install Norton again. He even provides a link: http://symantec.com/newnis
I am currently number 23 in the queue.
Of course, if you look really hard at this message, you'll see that my client had Norton Antivirus installed, and the link provided was to "NIS" which is Norton Internet Security. A different program. So I wipe Norton AV, reboot, install NIS, reboot, notice the problem when the application code comes back as "invalid." Remove Norton, reboot, download http://www.symantec.com/newnav, Reboot, and try again.
No dice.
I am currently number 19 in the queue.
Install the MSI file again
Nope. Same problem as the original.
So by this time it's over three hours since I started all this nonsense (Norton takes about 20 minutes just to install, about 20 minutes to download, about 20 minutes to erase, etc). And I'm faced with going back on the chat. I'm actually looking forward to it, as I want to just kick somebody's ass about having the wrong link to the wrong application provided to me. So I hook up to the Symantec chat thingy again... and where the first time it told me I was number 35 in the queue, this time it tells me I'm number 74.
I am currently number 16 in the queue.
Well of course now there's a problem. It's going to be, what, forty minutes at least until I talk to somebody? And it's about 10:30 p.m? My clients need to go to bed! Now, I'm not charging them for this time, because it was me recommended Norton and so I feel obligated to fix it, but still they're gonna need to get rid of me sometime. So I get into the queue, who knows, maybe it will go faster than I think. And I start to blog because I have nothing else to do.
I am currently number 13 in the queue.
Well the client just came in, and yes, he needs me to leave. So what do I do? I can leave him with a broken Norton install and no virus protection... but wait! I just realized! He also has SpySweeper, based on an 18 month old two year license I had him purchase... And Spysweeper recently added an antivirus service! We discuss it, and agree that this might just suffice.
I am currently number 10 in the queue.
So I look into it, and discover that you can add the antivirus to an existing Spysweeper installation for a mere $10. I ran the Norton Erase tool for the last time, and we upgrade SpySweeper to SpySweeper with antivirus. But now there's a problem.
I am currently number six in the queue.
You see, I wanted to get back on the chat, tell the engineer that his product and his support sucked, and that Norton had just lost two or more customers - I certainly won't be recommending Symantec to any more of my clients.
Unfortunately, I am currently number six in the queue.
So, well, I have to reboot - both Norton Remover and SpySweeper are blinking at me to do so. I guess Symantec will have to live without the benefit of my anger.... At least till I can get home and e-mail their support department...
I am currently number four in the queue.
Reboot!
Posted by Albatross at June 20, 2007 11:41 PM | TrackBack...I would have uninstalled Norton and migrated to the *free* Grisoft solution of AVG. Free AV (for non-commercial users, like your customer) that works well and even has plugins for Outlook and Outlook Express.
But that's just me... :)
Posted by: Ben at June 22, 2007 4:07 AMSad, but true. I've dealt with Symantec in a similar fashion. After much thought early this year about either renewing my subscription with them or upgrading to Norton AV 2007 or going with another product, I decided on the latter. Norton had grown bloated and was taking up too many system resources. As it turned out their AV 2007 product wasn't playing nice with Windows either.
I had a problem when I did my last install of Norton and it took me a long time culling information from their website to fix it. In addition, a new problem cropped up where the product would shut down and then ask me to confirm my subscription - thereby leaving the PC without AV for some period until I saw the message. Their solution? Delete and re-install.
I deleted, but did not re-install. Instead, I went with ESet's NOD32 product. Know what? Works like a charm and uses a far smaller footprint on system resources. Been happy thus far, though I haven't had to use their support line. I've decided that Symantec is a loser that's lost track of it's initial appeal and has decided that home customers are gnats.
Posted by: B.D. at June 22, 2007 8:43 AMWow! What great tips, I had never heard of either of these products... of course that's why I'm interested in "keeping my hand in," so I learn about this stuff.
Architecturally I like the fact that SpySweeper does both spyware and AV, since there is no difference (as far as I know) between searching for spyware and searching for viruses. It's all signature-based pattern-matching as far as I know, and both "spyware" and "viruses" fall under the "shit you don't want on your computer" category of software...
Thanks for the tips guys!
Posted by: Albatross at June 22, 2007 9:11 AMBen's suggestion is a good one. When researching AV products, I looked into AVG. It's a decent AV product and I installed it on Shawn's grandmother's computer. Avast is another free AV product, but after looking into them, I decided that I liked AVG better.
However, being a tad more paranoid, I went with the other solution for myself. In Shawn's grandmother's case there were 2 considerations: ease of use and cost. She didn't want to pay anything or do much with the software. She didn't even understand why it was a good idea to have AV software (or antispyware software which I also installed). So, AVG was a good fit for her.
In my case, however, I'm a bit more paranoid about my protection. NOD32, while a paid for product, also had some of the highest ratings on a variety of AV comparison charts. Kaspersky is often rated tops, but it has a buggy installer. NOD32 is often rated second with no reports of problems with the install. My decision from that point of view was easy.
Posted by: B.D. at June 22, 2007 1:31 PM