RSSSymantec Error Blocks AOL Access
By Ed Oswald | Published March 17, 2006, 10:45 AM
A faulty update sent to users of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security prevented them from signing into America Online for several hours Wednesday. According to Symantec, the problem was traced to a part of the software that prevents attackers from accessing a computer through open ports.
Traffic from AOL was mistakenly marked as malicious, which caused the connections to drop, and blocked them from reconnecting. An update was pushed to users approximately seven hours after the faulty one was released, the company reported.
Symantec is recommending users who are still experiencing problems to look at an advisory for instructions on how to correct the issue. Disabling Norton should allow a user to go online to download the updated definition file.
Those still having problems can call Symantec customer support for free at 1-800-927-3991, the company said.
Wednesday's blunder is the second in the past week among major antivirus companies. A bug in a virus definition file issued last Friday caused McAfee's antivirus software to mistakenly mark several applications, including Microsoft's Excel, as infected with the virus W95/CTX. The files were quarantined, and in some cases deleted.
Surely blocking AOL is a good thing???
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|anyone stupid enough to be using AOL AND Norton Anti-virus deserves it. Norton breaks much more that it helps.
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|AOL has instructions for folks affected by this Norton blunder*. It are basically the same instructions provided by Norton's 1-800 number, though read out at a more sensible speed:
1-866 401 3713.
* McAfee comes free with an AOL membership.
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|I don't know what's more mindless: AOL users or the number of people here repeating the same joke/comment about the matter. It's old, move on. Not all users are the A/S/L drones you speak of. People like you seem worse. It's no different than these nation wars between the ignorant flock of kiddies. Grow up already.
P.S. Symantec blows.
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|You're absolutely right... not all of them are A/S/L drones... the rest have too much money to spend on lousy dial-up service and software that hasn't seen a "good" release since before 3.0. If that's what floats their boat, so be it... more power to them... but I hardly see it as a problem if they're cut off from the rest of the Internet. :)
As for Symantec... meh, depends on the product. Their "Internet Security" product most certainly does blow. Their corporate editions are fantastic, however.
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|As a former user of Norton AV (2002, 2003 and 2004), I found that it's just not worth how much it degrades your system when there's other AVs, such as Avast!, that do the job better while sucking up less resources.
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|Ok.. So Symantec blocked access to AOL. Where's the problem here?
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|yeah, crappy software blocks crappy ISP. LOL
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|It's about time someone put a stop to AOL's Malicious software.
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|this is just to funny
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|Error? I applaud symantec for this. AOL users are the epitomy of the internet and it needs to be shut down. Be it on IRC, fileforum, slashdot, or any other place on the web, they bring nothing but mindless, pointless chatter with their "A/S/L" or lame comments. KUDOS SYMANTEC! You've gained a point in my book!
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|I 2nd that comment!
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|Good job Symantec!! Woo-hoo!
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|wow, im having deja-vu right now ....
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|That's not Deja-vu.
They just cut the hardline. :0
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|Thanks to all who posted before. You guys had me roflmao!!! Too good. Too funny. It couldn't have happened to a lousier ISP.
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|You mean that AOL traffice isn't malicious? :-)
Seriously though I like Symantec's workaround to disable NAV and NIS. Maybe screw-ups like this will make people realize that there are better AV programs out there.
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|Gee, you fail to realize that every software company makes mistakes. Only major players in any market are usually affected and have their flaws go noticed. If NOD32 or Kapersky were anywhere near as dominant as symantec, their flaws would be posted just as much as symantecs and mcafee's are.
I guarantee, if NOD32 had as much market share as symantec did, and they made a similar mistake, you would hear just as much about it as you did on this one.
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|I never claimed that any of their competitors were perfect. My point was that there are better applications out there. Most reviews I have ever read for NAV and NIS generally agreed that there were better alternatives. Hopefully some users avail themselves of the alternatives.
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|Better to who thou? Does a home user care about some niche product that is used by geeks or do they care about a product that is proven, works, and has an easy to use interface with options they understand? Dont get me wrong, I dont use symantec or mcafee, but I do know that they are semi-decent products for the average home user.
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|Somebody actually noticed?
- Sorry, couldn't resist.
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|What is even more hilarius is that they think it's an "error".
AOL actually IS a virus, however it only infects those with an IQ less than 90 it seems.
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