second life and norton and no linden support

well for one i was wondering how many residents in sl have trouble with Norton Worm protection. it not premitting sl when it says permit and closing sl out? maybe those of you who have the problem can all write the lindens on one day like blast them. i just got a note from kona saying we are screwed that they wont help us in contacting Norton or working with Norton. go figure why help the little guy

Why aren't you upset at Norton? Its not LL's fault that Norton is blocking the SL program. And I don't think they're obligated to contact another software company on your behalf.

I've seen Norton software do some screwy things to certain programs, SL being only one of them. Just be thankful you're not using McAfee Antivirus.

Try calling or emailing Norton, if you are setting permissions in Norton to allow SL to run, and its still being blocked by Norton, then I don't see why you're upset with LL - it sounds like its 100% Norton's problem.

(Or, my personal recommendation, try AVG. Or maybe switch this over to the Technical Issues forum.)

You're well-meaning, but that could be sadly unconstructive and make things worse. Why not write a polite letter to Norton saying how buggy their stuff can be? My own personal solution to this problem was to switch software from the brand that rhymes with Morton to a freeware combo that ultimately proved more effective and transparent -- SpywareBlaster, SpyBot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware, Sygate Personal Firewall, and a few others.

BTW I don't think Kona would have phrased it like that.

"Morton" stuff has long held problems for me, and that was the last straw.

Can't you go into Norton's settings and manual configure it to allow Second Life's executable to access the internet?

I think I had to do that one time with Norton's Internet Protection program.

Try this and see if it helps. I've had this problem myself, not just with SL, but with many internet-capable programs. The failing is not with SL, but with Norton, especially if you're using NAV 2005 or NIS 2005. If manual configuration does not work, try reinstalling Norton. That has worked for me in the past.

2005 seems to be very tempramental, much more so than previous versions. For some reason it likes to tell you that things that used to be okay are all of a sudden not okay anymore. If you have a Creative sound card, then it's likely that Norton didn't install properly. and it is consequently having all kinds of problems behind the scenese that you're not even aware of. You see, there's this conflict between Norton Anti-Virus (2004 & 2005) and Creative sound card drivers that neither company ever wants to talk about until and unless you show symptoms. Then they give you a series of things to try in order to resolve the problem, most of which involve eliminating many of the very features that encouraged you to buy the products in the first place. And of course, each company blames the other for the problem so truly resolving it is next to impossible.

I'm really starting to question whether Norton is worth using anymore. I hate MacAffee's interface, but I might make the switch just the same.

I have the same problem and it is extremely irritating. As you say, you click ok and the box just keeps repeating again and again. My solution is to turn Norton off for a few mins, which allows me to do what the hell i want to do.

Alexa

Do you have a little check box on the bottom part of the warning thats says something like "Click here if you wish to always use this setting"?

May not be it, but unless you check that box, you will get the warning popup over and over again.

I'm not sure what I'm doing right, (or wrong?) but I have used Norton as long or longer than I have been a resident of SL and I have never had any problems.

I agree with some of the above folks, contact Norton. I mean, you wouldnt go to your local clothing store and complain to them that your deoderant left a white mark on their shirts... you'd pick another deoderant or complain to the deoderant maker.. right?

Anyway, I hope you find a fix.

At first I found that it wasn't Norton really that wasn't working with SL, but Windows firewall. It required resetting portals, etc.

Then I found that Norton just wasn't catching all the viruses that seem to hit me when I'm playing SL. I honestly don't know why, when I do not have my email programs on, and I have no other windows open, but just SL running, I am constantly hit with all these virus attacks like "Hellkern" and "Trojan Bankfraud" and what not. I can't see that they originate from within SL, but is that possible? That a lot within SL could have viruses that attack those who visit that lot? I just don't see how that is possible, but I'm reporting my experience.

Then Norton completely borked for me finally so that it wouldn't reinstall, because some viruses are set up to kill Norton itself *and* your ability to reinstall or fix Norton.

So I switched to the Russian program Kaspersky. Kaspersky just catches a lot more viruses than Norton. It is cheaper than Norton. I figure since so many of the viruses originate in Russia and its old Soviet allies, due to so many angry tekkies with poor pay and too much time on their hands, it's good to have the Russian AV program working.

I also found that Kaspersky worked fine with SL because it probably never heard of SL.

Norton freaking sucks.
I use Zone Alarm (by Zone Labs) and AVG (by Grisoft).

Norton is garbage.

Prokofy is back!

I had these viruses too, until I threw away my Rubik's Cube (it had a scanner worm in it I think) and uninstalled all instances of Tetris.

For the record, I have personally hugged Kona and he didn't leave any white marks at all on my shirt.

A POSSIBLE FIX...

I have had the worm thingy popup occassionally since 1.6 was released. I would simply click to permit and all would be good.

Today, with the upgrade to 1.6.2, I again received the worm popup. But, suddenly clicking to permit no longer worked. It was just as some here have said.. repeated.. no matter how many times I clicked it.

I went into Norton's and selected to turn worm protection off.. logged in.. and turned it back on.

Well... when I attempted to log in again after a reboot.. tada.. worm popup again with the repeat popup. GRRRRRRR

Again, I went into Norton's and went snooping around in the settings. I found in the list of permitted programs that Second Life was listed TWICE. Well, I deleted BOTH.

Guess what... it worked! I have since attempted 5 logins (to test) and no more worm protection issues. WOOHOO!

Soooooooo... if you are having this issue, give it a try!

------------------
Under Norton's Options, select Internet / Worm Protection.. then Program Control. Find any and all listings for Second Life and select to Remove them. You may get the popup once more so that SL can be re-added to this permitted list.

I use ZoneAlarm and Symantec and I've never had a problem....

Yup. Wouldn't touch it with *your* 'puter.

First, this is not LL's problem - why you're getting pissy w/them is beyond me. Norton is the problem and as others have mentioned - it's crap.

Second, it is HIGHLY doubtful that Kona would say something like that to a customer.

Like Eggy said,

Norton baaaaad. Go with AVG and ZoneAlarm, or AVG and Windows XP SP2's firewall. I have tested and used both myself and found them to run very well with SL. On a positive note, AVG is free for personal use!

Generally, Norton products are screwy at best and I recommend anyone to unistall at the earlist time possible. In my own experience, they seem to have a nack to be worse then the virii they protect you from.

Julianna, as for jumping all over LL, can you expect LL to support someone else's products? Its like asking Microsoft to support Norton. Or Micrsoft to support LL for that mater. Now having said this, I recommend in the future you ask a few friends their opinions before stressing yourself and getting a hate on for someone or something.

Prokofy,

Do you have a router? Or is your computer plugged directly into your cable/DSL modem?

If you don't have a router, you should get your butt down to the nearest computer store and buy one, right now. The $50 or $75 they cost are more than offset by the added layer of security you get.

Basically, the router gives you a hardware firewall, which is worth 10x what Norton or anything else gives you in terms of protection. Your computer is basically un-touchable from the outside world when you're behind a router.

- Jon

Julianna, the only thing that's screwed is your perspective. I had issues with Norton (I use AVG now from Kona's suggestion to me...AND he was quite the helpful gentleman) and Kona informed me SL doesn't support other software that's installed on my PC, which OBVIOUSLY makes sense to everyone BUT you. How is LL responsible for software you installed on your computer?! Prior to installing AVG anti-virus software, Kona told me to try to deactivate Norton first or change my virus settings...TADAH! He was right...it worked...but I still went to checkout AVG which others have recommended highly. Kona even gave me the same SL support 800 number if I had no success at altering my Norton's settings, which I didn't need to do since I at least know how to deactivate software I've installed on my computer. You definitely have some accountability issues if you think LL should be held responsible for your inability to work your own virus software.

From what I've read from other posts you've created on the forums to bash Kona and LL, it was clearly suggested to you on several occassions by Lindens and residents to simply contact Norton or deactivate (or uninstall) that software, as well as call SL's Customer Support...Kona clearly gave you the 800 number for additional assistance. If you don't even follow their helpful suggestions (on several instances apparently), then the real issue is you. Are you just thick headed? If you don't know how to manage software installed on your computer, you have no business blaming others for your own ignorance. You blaming LL or any Linden for your Norton software problems is like you blaming them for the power going out in your home because you didn't pay your power bill!

On the other hand, I can understand being fustrated with bugs...anyone who's been a longtime resident of SL knows that new releases often comes with it share of bugs. I also know that when reporting bugs that providing them with step by step details (as they ask for) of what I think might be wrong helps them get to the bottom of my issue faster and more efficiently. Even if I can't re-create reproduceable steps to make the bug happen again on demand, I know that writing clear and coherant sentences will be far more helpful to them and myself than just stating incomprehensible statements.

Having done tests in Preview with the Lindens, I've know writing one line bug reports doesn't help LL's support staff (or any support staff for that matter), especially if you write something like "It's not working I don't know what to do fix it now I need help!!!" Is what you have written even understandable? WHAT is not working? What "it" are you referring to...? Maybe English isn't your first language or your medication is no longer helping you, but you can't blame LL for that. Actually, I'm surprised how legible this post you made here was compared to your other forum posts. I know everyone is not a tech geek like others are (I'm hardly a tech nerd myself), but you don't need to be when asked to state things simply like, "I tried to open my Inventory, but it won't open when I click on it...". Bottomline, either you learn to follow directions and write more clearly or you should've just called the 800 number that was pointed out to you on several occassions.