Laptop Troubles

Norton.
The Windoze firewall is rubbish. Keep it turned off and get Norton Internet Security back on there.

Re: Laptop Troubles
While better than nothing, any of the web-based firewall test sites reveal the native Windows Firewall is pretty much next to nothing. More on this in a bit, but first lets see what we can do about your problems with Norton. Whether or not you intend to reinstall any Norton apps, its best to thoroughly uninstall and remove all Norton from your machine - and Add/Remove Programs will leave stuff behind. Symantec provides specific removal tools designed to safely and effectively remove many of their products. . For versions of Norton products 2003 or later, see Using the Norton Removal Tool to remove all Norton 2006/2005/2004/2003 products from your computer. For versions prior to 2003, see Uninstalling Norton Internet Security or Personal Firewall 2003 or earlier using the RnisUPG.exe removal utility and Removing Norton AntiVirus 2003 or earlier by using the Rnav2003.exe removal utility.

Next, PestPatrol is not an antivirus. Its an OK anti-adware/spyware app, but will provide no protection against virus infections, nor against most trojan, worm, or rootkit infections. You need antivirus, anti-adware/spyware, and a real, configurable, 2-way firewall. There are suites which bundle the individual apps, and of course there are standalone versions of all of them out there. The bundles all are for-fee, some standalone products are for-fee and some, including some decent ones, are free. Whatever your preference, make your choice(s) and get yourself adequate protection.

Norton, McAfee, LavaSoft, TendMicro, and ZoneLabs offer well regarded, reliable, nicely featured, easy-to-deploy bundles, as do several other vendors. For folks not really into tweaking and twiddling, bundles are an excellent idea; at least you can figure the various included apps are engineered to work with one another. You apparently have had some experience with Norton, so I'd say that might be a good way for you to go - at least some of it should be somewhat familiar to you.

OK, I reinstalled it. Even after running that uninstall utility it remembered that it was originally installed in October of 2005. How? Something in the registry?

Yup. If ya wanna, you can use regedit to hunt town and remove the entries - search-for-and-delete everything named or containing (without the quotes) "norton" and "symantec". Also use Explorer, configfured to view all files and to view system folders, to locate and delete or rename all files and folders having (without the quotes) "norton" or "symantec" in the folder name, and all files containing either (without the quotes) "norton" or "symantec". When deleting or renaming folders, be sure you're dealing only with folders having either "norton" or "symantec" in the folder name, and when you're fussing with the registry, be sure to back up (to removable media is best) any key you intend to alter before doing anything to it.

Once you've done that, if you wish you can reinstall your original Norton or Symantec product, and if it is a current product, still eligible for support, your subscription date will begin with the date of reinstall, BTW.

Just wanna mention again, you need a dedicated antivirus and a full-featured firewall. While resource-intensive, Norton/Symantec AV and firewall products are top-rated, reliable, and highly effective. With contemporary fast processors (say 800 MHz and up) and adequate memory (say 256MB or greater), and current operating systems (Win2K or later), the resource issue should be minor if niticeable at all. Older systems with slower processors, less memory, and obsolete operating systems likely will have problems with current Norton/Symantec security/privacy products, but that isn't exclusively a Norton/Symantec issue; any of the newer stuff will choke older, obsolete systems, and many newer security/privacy products specifically will not install on or work with Win9x platforms.

It's Norton IS 2005 running on a 2Ghz Sempron with 512MB of RAM with 128MB donated to the video card, XP Home.

That oughtta run Norton/Symantec stuff fine.

I suspect terrorists have invaded the network, Be careful what you say about Iraqi nationals.

Removing Norton can be a nightmare. It leaves shrapnell littering your registry.

This Norton removal tool will remove everything "Norton" from your system (but be careful ... I said EVERYTHING with the Norton name) ...

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039?Open&src=&docid=2001092114452606&nsf=nav.nsf&view=pfdocs&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=

Hope this helps.

E

As mentioned HERE, that Symantec utility is for removing Norton products subsequent to 2003 versions only. A nd as mentioned HERE, some manual cleanup remains to be done should you wish to totally remove all traces of Norton product. As cj noted, he used the utility, and his Norton "remembered" its original Oct '05 install date. As also mentioned earlier, a follow-up manual hunt-and-delete operation is required to remove all traces of Norton/Symantec product. For example, once the manual scouring has been done correctly, subject product has no way of "remembering" it had been on a system and may be reinstalled in "as new" condition; on reinstall, the product will request registration/activation just as it did when it originally was installed, with completion of the registration steps resulting in a new subscription calendar begining with date of reinstallation (though that will be functionally effective only for product still in current support cycle - updates and patches will not be available for retired product)