Will Norton ever fix their bugs? Do they even care?

**ClickHere2Surf.com** · July 27th, 2005, 08:30 AM

The Norton firewall has a bug that prevents my software from accessing the internet even when set to allow even though my program only uses the http and https ports. I tried emailing them but it's impossible to get a human, only an automated reply to anything you send.

I literally have to explain to users almost daily that Norton has a bug that causes this and tell them they need to disable the Norton firewall completely and install zonealarm, I have a preset message explaining all this because I have to send it daily and so far must have caused Norton to loose nearly 1000 subcribers, wouldn't it be smarter for them to fix the bug? They would stop loosing so many users and I'd finally be able to stop telling everyone how buggy Norton is.

Why don't they fix it? It's been at least 2 years now, when a bug is reported in my software, I often have it fixed and the update released within 30 minutes, why hasn't Norton fixed this in 2 years and will they ever?

**Gabriel** · July 27th, 2005, 09:30 AM

IMHO there are only two norton/symantec products worthy
Ghost
Disk doctor (very old yet efficient)

The others are plain c$%p...
I hate their AV, firewall, system mechanic etc.

All well,
Gabirel

**CeeBee** · July 27th, 2005, 10:02 AM

The corporate AV is quite good. In 5+ years of using it we haven't had a single issue or virus.

**emr** · July 27th, 2005, 11:20 AM

I like Corporate too. Had very few issues with it that couldn't be fixed easily and it seems to do a good job.

emr

**mrl1te** · July 27th, 2005, 09:32 PM

We too use their corporate AntiVirus as well as the SMTP scanner and Premium AntiSpam and I enjoy it. I would however like to see more innovation from them in making their products better. Reporting is somewhat aged and they could do better handling systems that are already infected. I do get tired having to download removal tools since I think the software should do this automatically. But, no one is perfect and I think things will get much better once Microsoft joins the market, competition is goooood!

**kato2274** · July 28th, 2005, 05:24 AM

moved to lounge since these aren't really technical queries

**Ferrit** · July 28th, 2005, 08:28 AM

I just had a really strange thought
Why doesnt ClickToSurf fix the bug in the software he wrote for his customers?
Or does he even care?
Why is he blaming it on Norton?
Didnt he write the software?
Thousands of other pieces of software have to deal with NIS and a host of other different firewalls.

**kato2274** · July 28th, 2005, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I just had a really strange thought
Why doesnt ClickToSurf fix the bug in the software he wrote for his customers?
Or does he even care?
Why is he blaming it on Norton?
Didnt he write the software?
Thousands of other pieces of software have to deal with NIS and a host of other different firewalls.

a very fair point I think. since this is software that accesses the internet, and almost everyone is encouraged to run a firewall these days, doesn't the software author have a responsibility to thoroughly test the software prior to selling it? and we are talking about Norton internet security here....a MAJOR software vendor that lots of users are likely to have. we're not talking about some obscure foreign internet download only firewall written in visual basic and sold by some guy as shareware.....

but this does follow a pattern though doesn't it. it's always someone elses fault, nero, nvidia, norton, etc etc etc.

**Quattro** · July 28th, 2005, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by Gabriel

IMHO there are only two norton/symantec products worthy
Ghost
Disk doctor (very old yet efficient)

The others are plain c$%p...
I hate their AV, firewall, system mechanic etc.

All well,
Gabirel

I second this...Norton products really suck, except the ones mentioned above.

**Ferrit** · July 28th, 2005, 09:27 AM

Just an added note to be fair.
I dont like NIS 1 dam bit either.

**3fingersalute** · July 28th, 2005, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I just had a really strange thought
Why doesnt ClickToSurf fix the bug in the software he wrote for his customers?
Or does he even care?
Why is he blaming it on Norton?
Didnt he write the software?
Thousands of other pieces of software have to deal with NIS and a host of other different firewalls.

This is pretty much what I was thinking, but I didn't want to appear to be picking on him, as most of his threads lately I have been pointing out are:

"This doesn't work on my computer, so this company = teh suck" kind of threads.

**Ferrit** · July 28th, 2005, 10:07 AM

Hehe

**Matridom** · July 28th, 2005, 01:01 PM

You know, I've done my fair share of programming, and i've always taken upon myself to "idiot" proof the application. That means i make it work no matter what. On average, about 1/4 to 1/2 of my code is to prevent Joe Bloe from doing something stupid, so that means testing it on odd configurations, trying to break it, and in general causing hell for the app to debug it.

Clickhere, since you wrote the program to connect to the internet, you then have to deal with other applications. I'm sure that if i installed NIS and downloaded your application (not that i have nor want either) i'm sure i can figure a way to make it work. Once i know EXACTLY what is causing the issue, i would then take the steps to work around the "supposed" bug in NIS.

I mean, seriously, people get an app, they want it to work, you are responsible for the app. So rather then complain about how Symantec can't get their act together, why don't you reprogram your app to work around the "bug" in NIS, if you can ID the bug, then symantec may be more willing to talk to you. Maybe this "bug" is standard working for NIS and you wrote a bad program?

Either way, you'll be a better programmer for solving the issue and learning hwo to deal with problem then complain about other people doing a piss poor job on theirs.

**kato2274** · July 28th, 2005, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by Matridom

You know, I've done my fair share of programming, and i've always taken upon myself to "idiot" proof the application. That means i make it work no matter what. On average, about 1/4 to 1/2 of my code is to prevent Joe Bloe from doing something stupid, so that means testing it on odd configurations, trying to break it, and in general causing hell for the app to debug it.

Clickhere, since you wrote the program to connect to the internet, you then have to deal with other applications. I'm sure that if i installed NIS and downloaded your application (not that i have nor want either) i'm sure i can figure a way to make it work. Once i know EXACTLY what is causing the issue, i would then take the steps to work around the "supposed" bug in NIS.

I mean, seriously, people get an app, they want it to work, you are responsible for the app. So rather then complain about how Symantec can't get their act together, why don't you reprogram your app to work around the "bug" in NIS, if you can ID the bug, then symantec may be more willing to talk to you. Maybe this "bug" is standard working for NIS and you wrote a bad program?

Either way, you'll be a better programmer for solving the issue and learning hwo to deal with problem then complain about other people doing a piss poor job on theirs.

**FireAm94** · July 28th, 2005, 02:09 PM

Norton went from "best antivirus proggy" on our preventive maintenance list to top on our crap list. When 2003 first came out it would atleast detect viruses. The crap they have out now....the "majority" of the time doesn't even detect simple trojans. It just flat out sucks....BAD. That's not even thinking about the activation bugs and such. I won't even begin to discuss their firewall program as it's not even worth talking about. They really are out of the loop....as of about 2-3 years ago. They've lost ALOT of loyal customers too.