netscape/frisk/symantec ***

I depend on netscape 7.2 for most of my email. I use f-prot for most security. I had installed Norton av corporate edition last year because that is what a customer that I connect to uses. Symantec log says something bad tried to access live update 8/15/06. Last week, f-prot realtime protector started repeatedly telling me Symantec live update was was infected. I inquired of their support if that was a false or what, no response yet. F-Prot online scanner does not hit on it. They have a FAQ about disinfecting viruses in XP, says press F8 while booting. F8 doesn't do anything.

Q1: Is XP supposed to have an F8 to "Windows Advanced Options" menu? This is an HP pentium box that came with media edition installed.

I finally decided to uninstall symantec. That doesn't seem to remove the files, f-prot kept saying in was infected (at least after XP startup).

This seems to have broken netscape. It started asking for me to register my screen name, and doesnt' seem to remember after I do (also, the license agreement part gives a doc not found message). Going into mail seems to have lost all setup information, and won't let me change it. I can see the mozilla profile files are still there. I tried using netscape profile manager to readd my profiles, but it also doesn't seem to remember what I enter. When I try to edit the mail and newsgroup settings in netscape mail, it goes into a wizard which starts off with radio buttons for mail or newsgroup, then does nothing if I press the continue or cancel buttons. Netscape itself did remember my homepage settings, just the email window and profile selectors seem confused and obstinate.

I reinstalled netscape, which states it keeps profiles, but no change. I renamed the Symantec directory and that seems to have stopped the Realtime Protector errors.

Q2: What is going on?

Q3: If I switch to Thunderbird or something, are there directions somewhere for moving my email and profiles?

I can last a short period using my ISP's webmail, but I have a lot of years of work in my email. I also use a very obsolete Compuserve client for a very old account, and have had no problems with it.

Q4: Symantec, F-Prot, both or neither?

 

I haven't used any Corporate versions of Norton's, but I have used their products. First of all, it is recommended that you use only one AV software. Installing two can create problems. I have switched from Norton's to AVG Free because Norton's seemed to slow my systems down. Therefore, I would remove Norton's and use F-Prot only. You can always use an online AV scan if you feel you need to get a second opinion of any viruses.

How did you remove the Norton product? What version was it? The newer versions should be removed using Add/Remove. If that doesn't remove the program, use Norton's SymNRT program to finish removing Norton's. I used this program to make sure nothing was there. I also did a search on Norton and Symantec to find anything else. I deleted all that I found. Lastly, I used a registry cleaner to find everything else and remove it. I know, it's a pain but I wanted to make sure everything was gone.

Do you have a backup of your profile for Netscape? If not, make one. I suggest you uninstall and reinstall Netscape. Better yet, switch to Firefox and Thunderbird for your browser/email needs. I used Netscape for a long time, but I like Firefox and Thunderbird better. They are quicker in my opinion. Thunderbird will give you the option to transfer all your settings and files from Netscape. I think Firefox also allows you to transfer settings, bookmarks, etc. You can install those two programs before uninstalling Netscape just to make sure everything transfers over okay. Just make sure you have backups of your profiles before starting anything.

I hope that helps a little bit. Post back with any other questions.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. I'd have to dig around to find what version of Norton it was, it was current as of October of last year, plus whatever the live update did since then. I used the add/remove of the XP control panel, which appeared to fire off some uninstaller of Symantec. Later, when f-prot was still complaining about the exe or dll (I know the difference, why doesn't XP?), I renamed the Symantec directory to symantecxxx.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by removing something then using it's online version to get a second opinion.

Which registry cleaner do you recommend? I've been messed up on every version one way or another back to the 80's. (Except 2003 which I haven't used, and XP so far as I'm aware - but I haven't manually backed up or modified any registries on XP yet). At this point, I'm not about to load another Symantec product to remove one I don't want...

As far as multiple AV vendors... they all have different strengths and miss stuff. On my wife's computer, when I was updating one of the Symantec products, it told me I needed an anti-virus. So I installed f-prot there, too, figuring I hadn't paid Symantec or something. Well, I had, it just forgot about it. Over the years I've become a big fan of frisk, they have been the most forthright about everything, including falses. This is the first time I've had a slow response from them.

I've backed up all mozilla profile stuff into another directory, will be going to cd-something before I do any other config changes.

Still wondering about the F8 thing.

 

No need to worry about the version number. The Norton removal program that I mentioned should remove it. I would rethink running the removal tool. It is a good way to make sure things are gone. The registry cleaner I used was Regseeker. It was very easy to use and I found loads of Norton entries in the registry.

To clear up the second opinion comment I made... I meant that you should just install one AV software. If you wanted to run an occasional scan from another AV company, there are a couple online scans that you can run. They don't install their software, they just check your system while you are online. The two that I have used are Housecall, and Activescan. Both are easy to use. Hopefully, that clears that up.

From what I find here, F8 should get you into the advanced options.

Mike

 

Does Housecall just scan and report, or does it also fix the problems it finds?

 

I think the free scan just scans and reports. Any time I used it, I was virus free, so I didn't have to worry about that.

 

what about firewall?

I think when I removed symantec it asked if I want to use windows firewall, and I said yes.

I went into the windows firewall under control panel and started poking about. I see I've checked the notify box, but it hasn't notified me. I tried adding netscape to allowed programs, but that didn't seem to make any difference. I also noticed it said the log file would be written to a file in the c:\windows directory (something like pfirewall.log), but no such file was there.

Could this have something to do with my issue? How should I investigate it?

Thanks for the F8 doc.

 

Hello jgarry,

By default, WF does not log. To turn it on:

Control Panel > Security Center > Windows Firewall > Advanced tab > Security Logging > Settings > in the log settings dialog box: check "Log dropped Packets" and click the save as bar: \WINDOWS\pfirewall.log. That log is accessible with Notepad.

Regards - Charles

 

If you think Windows Firewall may be causing the problem, just turn it off for awhile. See if everything works. I wouldn't think it would cause the problems, but that should tell you if it is.

Mike

 

Thanks Charles, I saw the dropped packets box and didn't grok it as dropped by firewall.

Mike, I tried turning it off, no change. In the past, I've found several things that didn't work with the Symantec firewall on, and while talking with someone about this went "hmmm, trouble with Netscape online..." But it seems to be something wrong with Netscape. F-prot support has got back to me, we'll see if they help.

 

mail working again

I finally got a reply from Netscape support. They have a detailed list of steps, but what basically worked was reinstalling with the full installer (nssetup-full.exe), rather than what you get with the first download button you see.

 

Glad you got it back. Thanks for the update.