If you are experiencing slowdowns past few days and you're running NAV...

[FlyingPenguin]

I had three cases of this the other day. Uninstalled and re-installed NAV which fix it (total uninstall: uninstalled LiveReg, Live Update and deleted all Symantec & Norton folders, deleted all Symantec registry keys) which solved the problem.

Don't know if they've corrected the problem with the SSL servers yet:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/37036

NAV (and other programs) have routines that regularly and automatically keep them updated. They typically do this via HTTP operations. Due to the sensitivity of the data and wanting to prevent session hijacks, they typically set up the update servers with SSL certificates that verify the update servers' identities to the clients. If the certificates have expired, the clients may sit there, aborting and retrying the connection over and over. This kind of fibrillation will eat your CPU (and memory, since each SSL negotiation attempt requires a non-trivial amount of resources to compute).

[dadx2mj]

Geez I was having massive slow down problems with Norton's and anything that I right clicked on. I tried everything I could think of including going back to a good Ghost Image with no joy. Finally I gave up and reformatted. Oh well all is good now and a fresh install feels oh so good.

[renovation]

i have nav .2004 and this program is about to be sent flying out my back door !
every time i try doing a system scan it locks up my computer.
it also is slowing down my browser by leaps and bounds !
i truly think Norton has some problems to address and needs to do a lot more testing before they start selling there goods !
they have released products before that have been full of bugs and I'm 98% sure they have again
i know of many local friends who have installed Norton nav 2004 on there xp machines and are /have gotten part way and had problems !
Norton may be the biggest know name out there in virus protection . but i think they are pushing products before they are ready for market -looking to join Microsoft as the big brother you cant be with out
i say stay away from symantec products till they get there shit togetter !
i have a on-line support request into them now ! seeing they want to charge you $29.95 per problem for phone support and the office is only open m-f 6a -5p p.t.
and you type in windows xp on there support search result page for nva 2004 you will find Results for: +windows +xp
2777 results found, top 500 sorted by relevance .
link

this is a small example of really not that large a program - and one they keep modifying over and over . so its not like some brand new ground up program
and they nail us yearly for a good fee to use they goods ! its a lease ! with microsoft its really not as bad as norton if you think about it .there both sour grapes but i feel norton is the one that is worst of the 2 evils !

[renovation]

i keep you all posted as to there responces ! rolleyes:

Dear Valued Symantec Customer,

Your request has been received and you should expect a response from our authorized Symantec support center within 24 to 48 hours.

Request reference number: 1209908
Problem Type: Virus Scanning

You may update your request by replying to this message. Because your reply will be automatically routed, please do not change the text in the email Subject line.

Additionally, please feel free to utilize our rich knowledgebase of self-help information that can be found at:

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/

Thank You,
Symantec Technical Support:

[FlyingPenguin]

DAD: That's EXACTLY what was happening. ANYTHING having to do with Norton (right clicking because Norton has a right-click link for VScanning), openning Word documents (because Norton has a word virus plugin) would cause the system to pause for several seconds.

Seems like just disabling auto update is the quick fix but I re-installed NAV anyway.

[FlyingPenguin]

BELLRINGER: I don't like 2004. It's a code bloated monstrosity. Even 2003 is a code bloated beast. I prefer 2002 of all the NAVs, and they should continue to support it for several years.

Personally I use McAfee Enterpise on my home systems - it has a much smaller memory footprint than NAV and uses less system resources.

The free AVG anti-virus also works very well with little memory/resource use. I use that in my laptop.

[renovation]

thanks fp

[PreDatoR]

anything Symnatec(sp) makes is a virus as far as i'm concerned. Never had any luck with NAV or Ghost so i keep that shit off of my computer.

[wvjohn]

this came up at work and there was a workaround i found at bootlist.com - basically disable the autoupdate - there was a service running forever on one of the 98 machines - lucomm.exe or similar - i googled it and it was the nav autoupdate - i'm using nav 2003 pro or corporate not sure, and it's been fine so far - we ditched mcafee at work becuase it seriously slowed down the p3 500 workstations

i also run the grisoft freebie on my main rig with nav (just in case something takes out nav) , don't notice any performance issues

[VidmanII]

grisoft free AVG here as standalone. I'm w/ pred as far as NAV goes.

[MegaVectra]

I had noticed it for a couple of days, but it went away. Thanks FP.

[dadx2mj]

This is the ONLY time I have ever had any problem with Norton. I have had System Works installed since version 2000 and have 2003 installed now. Honestly I dont get why people think it is such a resource hog. The only thing I keep running is the anti virus auto protect. I got into this debate at another forum a few weeks ago and did some tests with it running and disabled. In 3dMark 2003 I actually scored higher with NAV running than with it not. All other tests I did showed no measurable difference with it running in the tray or not. In my opinion Norton's reputation of being a resource hog is out dated and undeserved with the newer version.

[FlyingPenguin]

Lots of benchies have been done to show that ANY AV app will markedly slow down your system. It can be as much as 10% depending on several factors but most especially your hard drive system performance and the AV app.

3DMark doesn't test hard drive system performance and doesn't focus on CPU performance - it tests your 3D card's performance.

SIMPLE SUBJECTIVE TEST: Run Adaware or Spybot. While it's scanning turn Norton's background protection on and off (right click Norton taskbar icon and disable). Now tell me you don't see the difference.

[FlyingPenguin]

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: http://news.com.com/2100-1029-5138447.html?tag=nefd_hed

You know, what no one has addressed yet in all of this is WHY should an AV app so badly cripple your computer if it can't autherize a lousy certificate. Smells like some sloppy coding to me.

Symantec has laid the blame on VeriSign after Norton AntiVirus users complained that their computers became slow and unstable after they downloaded updates to the software.

The expiration of some of VeriSign's certificate-authority certificates this week appears to have caused problems beyond the harmless error messages generated when users tried to access secure areas of Web sites. Symantec on Friday blamed VeriSign for problems with its security software products that left users' PCs unresponsive and unstable.

The problems caused a flurry of angry posts to the Symantec area of support forums from users saying they would ditch Symantec's Norton AntiVirus. Some users of the Norton products reported that their PCs locked up or slowed down after downloading the latest virus definitions on Wednesday and Thursday. Symantec itself reported that "after January 7, 2004, your computer slows down and Microsoft Word and Excel will not start."

But the glitch is not down to Norton AntiVirus, according to Symantec. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said in a statement on its Web site that the problem "appears to be related to VeriSign receiving an unusual number of requests by Windows-based clients to download a certificate revocation list (CRL) on January 7-8, 2004. This increase in traffic resulted in intermittent VeriSign CRL server availability."

A number of VeriSign's certificates that verified it as a certificate issuing authority expired on these dates. Norton AntiVirus products routinely verify the integrity of system components using certificates issued by the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. Neither VeriSign nor Symantec could immediately explain the exact sequence of events, but according to the statement on the security software maker's Web site, copies of Norton AntiVirus installed on PCs were unable to achieve the authentication they required because of the unavailability of VeriSign's server. "Therefore customers experienced delays and instabilities," Symantec said.

Hinting that it was not the only company whose products were affected, Symantec said it "and other vendors" were "cooperatively working with VeriSign to mitigate this situation."

Symantec issued a quick fix for the problem. The fix involves de-selecting the option to check for publisher's certificate revocation in the Internet Explorer browser.

Despite Symantec's protests that it is not to blame, the episode may have created bad publicity for its Norton AntiVirus product. "I am now strongly tempted to trash Norton AV in favour of something more user friendly and which doesn't slow down the opening of every damned thing in sight!" said one poster. "I have been having 16-plus second delays if I right-clicked on anything--even after a system reboot," wrote another. "I am not happy and have installed Sophos instead." This individual then went on to say they were not happy with that either, "as updates seem incredibly confusing...I shall now try McAfee."

In a statement issued to address the certificate revocation problem, VeriSign said that it had taken steps since 2001 to notify customers of the situation and, with each communication, to alert them to the expiration date and steps necessary to obtain a new Intermediate Certificate Authority (CA).

[RubberDuckie]

NAV2004 is crap... it trashed my system.

Question: How is Symantec Corp 8.0 ?
I have that and wondering if it is any better then 2004