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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Larry S. who wrote (39713)	2/29/2004 5:58:50 PM
From: thecow	Respond to of 110652

This is a bad day to ask me about Norton. I just read this. From SmartComputing magazine: " Tech Support April 2004 • Vol.15 Issue 4 Page(s) 96 in print issue Defensive Computing: Has Symantec Become Sigh-Mantec? I’ve been a supporter of Symantec disaster prevention and recovery products for years. I even recommended two Symantec products, Norton Ghost (NG) and Norton AntiVirus (NAV) in my last book. But the products and company have changed in the last two years. Recent product releases have been buggy, and the company is distancing itself from customers, making it very difficult for users to obtain free support. My doubts first surfaced when Symantec released NG 2003. Although the NG 2003 user interface is a vast improvement over NG 2002, NG 2003 seems less stable than NG 2002. For example, there’s an apparent conflict between NG 2003 and NAV 2003. When NG automatically reboots my computer after a backup is complete, NAV 2003 is often disabled and cannot be manually re-enabled. The only way to re-enable NAV is to manually reboot. NG 2003 also leaves users feeling a bit uneasy. NG 2002 provides definitive evidence that the backup was successful: The progress bar goes to 100% and the message Dump Completed Successfully displays. With NG 2003, the backup runs to 99% complete, the screen goes blank, and the system reboots, leaving one with the disquieting (but false) feeling that the backup failed. NAV 2004 Woes My issues with NG 2003 pale in comparison to the problems I’ve experienced with NAV 2004. Recently, I installed NAV 2004 on a new computer. There was nothing unusual about the computer’s configuration. In fact, I had installed NAV 2003 on two identical computers earlier this year without incident. After I installed NAV 2004, the computer began freezing up. I consulted Symantec’s knowledge base and found a document in which Symantec acknowledges the problem, stating that “the cause is unknown, and there is no solution at this time.” As a workaround, Symantec recommends that users “change the Automatic LiveUpdate Option setting to Notify me when Updates are Available. Changing the option will cause Automatic LiveUpdate to prompt you to run LiveUpdate manually.” (For the uninitiated, LiveUpdate is a program that updates all Symantec products installed on your PC.) When I tried to implement the workaround, NAV displayed an internal program error message directing me to another Symantec document. This document said the problem could be fixed by manually running LiveUpdate. When I attempted to run LiveUpdate, I received two more error messages (LU1806 and LU1821) directing me to two more Symantec documents. I implemented the recommended solutions but was still unable to run LiveUpdate successfully. I decided to use Symantec’s free online support. The company has always made it difficult for users to obtain online support, requiring customers to go through a ridiculous number of gyrations before they can contact technical support, but recently Symantec decided to hide the online support form from customers, making it all but impossible to obtain free support. Fortunately, one of my Symantec contacts gave me the secret combination to the online support page, which I will share with you: Start at symantec.com /consumer.html. Select your product and version and click Continue. You’ll now be on a page containing more than 20 links, none of which appear to have anything to do with obtaining free online support. Click LiveUpdate Issues. Select the Contact tab, then click Free Online Support. This will display a form where you can (finally) contact tech support. Symantec’s online technical support people were unable to solve my problems, so I decided to leverage my internal contacts. After an hour-long phone call with a product specialist, most of my problems were resolved. However, I had to restore my system from the backup I took prior to installing NAV 2004, download a new and as yet unreleased version of Symantec’s LiveUpdate program, and then reinstall NAV 2004. Observations The typical customer without internal contacts would have had to pay $29.95 for the type of support I received—more than they may have paid for the product! Symantec, by hiding its online support link, is in effect forcing customers to pay for technical support. NAV 2003 appears to be more stable than NAV2004. Disaster prevention and recovery software companies should release products that prevent disasters, not cause them, and customers need to hold those that don’t accountable for their actions. by Alan Luber Alan Luber is an author and computer expert. His new book, “PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC Disaster Prevention Guide” (Que Publishing), provides an in-depth look at disaster prevention and recovery. To learn more about the book or to contact Alan, visit his Web site at pcfearfactor.com."