Does NIS 2005 conflict with some firewalls on some Linksys router? 1

[sazebac]

Wanted some feedback on this. My friend wanted to upgrade to NIS 2005 from a version of NAV she already had. I installed NIS 2005 on her computer (running Windows 2000, I don't know which Service Pak) without a hitch, no problems or issues. I was able to download the latest definitions and updates from symantec's web site with no problems. Restarted the computer and NIS 2005 came up fine. I did not do a virus scan. Instead I set up auto scan for Friday night of every week. When I left everything was working fine.
The next week I got a call from my friend. She said the auto scan had gone through as scheduled and she said NIS had detected one virus and quarantined it, but she did not know how to delete it. Furthermore, she said the NIS icon had disappeared from her task bar and she could not get it back on the taskbar. And that there were certain portions of websites she could no longer access, namely a link on airtrane's site where travel agents sign in.
I went to her house and rebooted and sure enough NIS would not auto start. I was able to get to the Internet Security portion of the software through start and programs but when I would try to do something it would tell me I had to uninstall and reinstall NIS. So I tried doing this but it would not uninstall as certain services would not stop. So I manually stopped all symantec services with xteq systems software and I was able to uninstall.
I was able to reinstall ok but when I tried to dload the latest definitions and updates from symantec's site it failed with a message like could not connect to symantec's site ( I don't know the exact error off hand). I was able to start NIS and oddly it indicated that the definitions were up to date so I did a full system scan and this time it did not find any viruses. I restarted and NIS auto started fine. I went to the website my friend could not get on before and now I was able to get on the site fine. I left thinking all was ok only to get another call 2 days later that the same thing was happening again: NIS would not start automatically and she could not get on a portion of the airtran site.
She said she was calling a computer person to look at it. A few days later I was told the computer guy said the issue was a conflict between NIS 2005 and the firewall on her LInkSys router (I don't know the model of the router) so he installed another version of Norton that is compatible with the
firewall....Norton System works 05. I have not yet asked if her computer is working normally now but I'm assuming it is for the time being.
Basically my question is has anyone ever heard of a conflict b/n a linksys router's firewall and NIS 2005? If not what could be causing the above? Thanks

 

[iamnotageek]

I've worked with both NIS2005 and the Linksys routers, but don't know if I've tried them together or not, but I would expect them to work together. I personally run both a hardware and software firewall for better security than either one can provide alone. The reason Norton SystemWorks works in your case is that it has the AV component but does not have the PersonalFirewall component.

It sounds like you initially had NIS2005 working in conjunction with the Linksys router, no? If so, it is possible that a subsequent NIS update that was downloaded post-install broke things. In any case, there is no way that I can see the Linksys causing the NIS icon to disappear from systray. All the Linksys is doing with its default config is aliasing IP addresses (NAT) and blocking unsoliticted traffic inbound from the internet. It is more likely that there is an NIS bug with respect to Win2K (should be running SP4) or a conflict with some other software running on the system that gets triggered by an NIS update.

Since the NIS firewall functions as a network proxy, if it is out of commission you typically can't get to the internet period. If it is partially out of commission, you might not be able to get to any secure websites (https) which are typically used to make reservations, purchases, etc. Ordinarily, it will only block websites if Parental Controls is enabled and you are logged on with a restricted account (e.g. child, teenager). If you take the defaults when you install it, it logs on with a Supervisor account that can get to any website.

When NIS (or NAV) says it can't contract the LiveUpdate website, check for internet access with your browser. If the browser works, go into LiveUpdate - Options - Configure - ISP. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, it gets set to use customized settings that don't make sense. The safest bet is to tell it to use the Control Panel options.

The other thing that can derail LiveUpdate is that some viruses and adware modify the contents of the \winnt\system32\drivers\etc hosts file to refer all symantec web addresses to the loopback address of 127.0.0.1. Clearing out the bogus entries (leave localhost) clears this up.

I have also seen NIS act funny on older, slower machines that don't have enough RAM (I wouldn't run it on a Win2K machine with less than 256MB). It seems that it gets in its own way when things get sluggish.