Norton Internet Security
2005 seems to be a bit of a poor product for Symantec. I think
I've just found a possible cause and solution to one of its little
design "features" on a friend's computer.
I'd rebuilt it inc
installing NIS 2005 from scratch again, but found myself looking at
some odd behaviour where every 5 minutes, a Symantec window would
popup in the bottom right hand corner several times before going to
sleep again for another 5 minutes - which was a bit annoying
to say the least.
Rules Automatically Created For The Program:
Symantec LiveUpdate
NIS had clearly created a rule,
and no amount of removing it manually, recreating it, setting it to
"permit all" or anything else made any difference.
From
a similar posting on this problem, I found there is a liveupdate scheduler
log file - i.e. the program in NIS which decides when to check
for updates - in the following location where {date} is the current
date on your machine.
c:\documents and settings\all users\application
data\symantec\liveupdate\{date}_Log.ALUSchedulerSvc
The following is
an extract from the log:
06-27-2008 | 23:04:01 | debug
| Performing DNS lookup of 'www.symantec.com'
06-27-2008 | 23:04:17
| debug | Unable to lookup host; Winsock error : 11004
06-27-2008
| 23:04:17 | debug | Loading scheduler settings...
06-27-2008
| 23:04:17 | debug | Loaded scheduler settings.
06-27-2008
| 23:04:17 | debug | Delay for checking for internet connection:
00:05:00.
06-27-2008 | 23:04:17 | success | Rolling back the schedule;
execution will occur at approximately 11:09 PM.
06-27-2008 | 23:09:17
| debug | Checking for internet connection state
06-27-2008
| 23:09:17 | debug | Performing DNS lookup of 'www.symantec.com'
06-27-2008
| 23:09:33 | debug | Unable to lookup host; Winsock error
: 11004
06-27-2008 | 23:09:33 | debug | Loading scheduler
settings...
06-27-2008 | 23:09:33 | debug | Loaded scheduler
settings.
06-27-2008 | 23:09:33 | debug | Delay for checking
for internet connection: 00:05:00.
The only thing I could
think of which could have prompted this behaviour was I had just set
the machine up for wireless using a Netgear USB adapter, instead of
a hard-wired ethernet connection into my hub - i.e. my connecton to
the internet from that machine had moved.
Through a process
of trial and error, I established that I could clear the problem
as follows:
Go into options in NIS and turn the auto-liveupdate
OFF (selecting "permanently" from the list)
Reboot the machine
Go back
into NIS and turn auto update back on again
The resulting
log shows clearly the effect - i.e.
www.symantec.com can now be resolved.
06-27-2008 | 23:11:57 | success | Schedule disabled.
06-27-2008
| 23:14:18 | info | ***** Start Log *****
06-27-2008
| 23:14:18 | debug | Loading scheduler settings...
06-27-2008
| 23:14:18 | debug | Loaded scheduler settings.
06-27-2008
| 23:14:18 | success | Service started.
06-27-2008 | 23:14:18 | debug
| Scheduler state: disabled
06-27-2008 | 23:14:18 | debug
| Starting scheduler...
06-27-2008 | 23:14:18 | info
| Scheduler state was 'disabled' when it shut down; remaining disabled...
06-27-2008
| 23:15:58 | info | Resuming schedule...
06-27-2008
| 23:15:58 | debug | Loading scheduler settings...
06-27-2008
| 23:15:58 | debug | Loaded scheduler settings.
06-27-2008
| 23:15:58 | debug | Delay for checking for internet connection:
00:05:00.
06-27-2008 | 23:15:58 | success | Rolling back the schedule;
execution will occur at approximately 11:20 PM.
06-27-2008 | 23:15:58
| success | Schedule resumed.
06-27-2008 | 23:20:58 | debug
| Checking for internet connection state
06-27-2008 | 23:20:58 | debug
| Performing DNS lookup of 'www.symantec.com'
06-27-2008 | 23:20:58
| info | Found DNS entry for www.symantec.com
06-27-2008
| 23:20:58 | info | Scheduler is launching Automatic
LiveUpdate...
06-27-2008 | 23:20:58 | success | Scheduler launched
Automatic LiveUpdate.
The snag is, it only seems to STAY fixed
if I leave the machine on an ethernet connection. Sometimes it comes
back on wireless and I haven't quite established why yet.
You
could try this fix - but to be honest, I'd recommend you just get
rid of Norton altogether and install something like Kaspersky Internet
Security - if you can manage to rid your machine of the mess left
behind from a Norton install (I'll leave that particular rant
to another time!).
