P3 and Norton 360

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P3 and Norton 360

kd1na
Dick,  John and everyone,
I have a very small business maintaining computer systems for local small businesses and several private customers. In almost every situation involving Norton 360 resulted in either the inability to share printers over a network or false alarms with virus detection in known good applications. The solution was to uninstall the Norton 360 and install a different antiviral software. I have nothing against using Norton products, just stay away from 360. It was also my experience that Norton 360 was very difficult to uninstall. I actually had to go to the Norton web site in order to get the application to properly eliminate 360 from the system.

Dave KD1NA

I'm the programmer of the Windows P3 Utility. It was virus scanned before it was offered on the Elecraft web site. Yours is the first report of any virus report.  Assuming you got the P3 Utility from the Elecraft FTP site or Elecraft web site then you are trying to install what I wrote.

I don't have Norton Antivirus (earlier experiences led me away from it) but there are web sites that will scan a suspicious executable with a good number of virus detection tools. Perhaps one of those would help you decide who to trust here. I could find one, but from a trust standpoint it would be better for you to find it yourself or from someone else.

I don't know what I could change to satisfy your Norton software.

I can tell you that the P3 Utility includes an FTP client, and in order to do its intended function, it must be allowed to contact the Elecraft FTP site in order to copy P3 firmware from Elecraft's FTP server to your computer. All the Elecraft Utilities (K3, W2, K144XV and P3) include thus function.

Dick, K6KR


Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 23, 2010, at 5:51 AM, "John E. Reiser" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello Elecrafters,
>
> I have been trying unsuccessfully to install the P3 Utility (Windows Version 1.3.7.22).   My virus protection program, Norton 360, will not allow it.  Norton pops up a message that a serious security breach has occurred.  Then I'm asked to restart my computer.
>
> I tried the install a couple of times on each of two different computers, one running Windows XP, and the other running Vista.  The results were exactly the same.
>
> I know, I know, turn off the Norton 360.  But hold on a minute,  Norton 360 is just doing its job  Something is wrong with the way the latest P3 Utility is coded.  Norton 360 has never before objected to any program installations on these computers, including several versions of the K3 Utility.
>
> I am hoping that the programmer of the P3 Utility reads this and fixes the problem with the code.
>
> I have received notification that my P3 is about to be shipped, so I need the Utility to be working on my computer soon.
>
> Many thanks and 73,
>
> John, W2GW
>
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Re: P3 and Norton 360

Doug Person
  I certainly agree with Dave.  I don't much care for Norton
anti-virus.  However, that said, its is possible to simply add an
exception so that Norton 360 stops complaining about the program.  There
are actually quite a few free anti-virus programs including a very nice
package from Microsoft.  Many of these free programs have very good
reputations.  My favorite is AVG. I also use Microsoft Security
Essentials which is about the simplest to use of any of them.  Norton
was once the top dog.  In fact, from a pure security standpoint, it
still is.  But it has become extremely bloated after 2+ decades of
"enhancements".

Doug KØDXV

On 8/25/2010 6:31 AM, David Robertson wrote:

> Dick,  John and everyone,
> I have a very small business maintaining computer systems for local small businesses and several private customers. In almost every situation involving Norton 360 resulted in either the inability to share printers over a network or false alarms with virus detection in known good applications. The solution was to uninstall the Norton 360 and install a different antiviral software. I have nothing against using Norton products, just stay away from 360. It was also my experience that Norton 360 was very difficult to uninstall. I actually had to go to the Norton web site in order to get the application to properly eliminate 360 from the system.
>
> Dave KD1NA
>
> I'm the programmer of the Windows P3 Utility. It was virus scanned before it was offered on the Elecraft web site. Yours is the first report of any virus report.  Assuming you got the P3 Utility from the Elecraft FTP site or Elecraft web site then you are trying to install what I wrote.
>
> I don't have Norton Antivirus (earlier experiences led me away from it) but there are web sites that will scan a suspicious executable with a good number of virus detection tools. Perhaps one of those would help you decide who to trust here. I could find one, but from a trust standpoint it would be better for you to find it yourself or from someone else.
>
> I don't know what I could change to satisfy your Norton software.
>
> I can tell you that the P3 Utility includes an FTP client, and in order to do its intended function, it must be allowed to contact the Elecraft FTP site in order to copy P3 firmware from Elecraft's FTP server to your computer. All the Elecraft Utilities (K3, W2, K144XV and P3) include thus function.
>
> Dick, K6KR
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 23, 2010, at 5:51 AM, "John E. Reiser"<[hidden email]>  wrote:
>
>> Hello Elecrafters,
>>
>> I have been trying unsuccessfully to install the P3 Utility (Windows Version 1.3.7.22).   My virus protection program, Norton 360, will not allow it.  Norton pops up a message that a serious security breach has occurred.  Then I'm asked to restart my computer.
>>
>> I tried the install a couple of times on each of two different computers, one running Windows XP, and the other running Vista.  The results were exactly the same.
>>
>> I know, I know, turn off the Norton 360.  But hold on a minute,  Norton 360 is just doing its job  Something is wrong with the way the latest P3 Utility is coded.  Norton 360 has never before objected to any program installations on these computers, including several versions of the K3 Utility.
>>
>> I am hoping that the programmer of the P3 Utility reads this and fixes the problem with the code.
>>
>> I have received notification that my P3 is about to be shipped, so I need the Utility to be working on my computer soon.
>>
>> Many thanks and 73,
>>
>> John, W2GW
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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Re: P3 and Norton 360

Dick Dievendorff
In reply to this post by kd1na
Thanks, David.  

I haven't had all that much experience with this particular Norton product,
but some years ago I did get one machine that had a free trial period for
some sort of Norton security tool, so I gave it a trial. I was unhappy with
the performance of the new machine. Performance improved markedly once I
changed AV vendors. I was a real fan of AVG, but these days I use Microsoft
Security Essentials.

However it's inappropriate for me as the author of the suspect product to
suggest that the AV tool is at fault. We're in the amateur radio business,
not the AV consulting business. Any issue like this that makes it harder to
use our products must be taken seriously. It would be wrong for me to
suggest to John that he trust my software more than his AV tool. Symantec is
a prominent player in the AV business. Norton 360 has done well in magazine
reviews, it's a CNet Editors Choice award winner (although the user reviews
aren't as kind).

We had a "false positive" malware alert with the K3 Utility some years back.
Thankfully one of our UK customers (a frequent forum contributor) publishes
a data security / data recovery web site and was quite helpful in testing
the K3 Utility with a number of malware scanners. There are a couple of web
sites that offer this very valuable service.

I don't know why the "false positives" occur, but generally after a while
and a few virus pattern updates these issues dwindle away. But I'm not in
control of this.  I don't know how to change my code to satisfy any
particular AV vendor's scan, nor should they tell me if I were to ask...

The K3 Utilities all contain FTP clients (using the common
Microsoft-supplied WinINET DLL) that is used to copy firmware files from
Elecraft's FTP site to your computer.  It is easy to guess that some malware
might use similar WinINET functions to do its dastardly deed, so perhaps the
list of DLL imports (the names of the Windows functions I use) is a part of
the "signature" that is "close enough" to some malware to trigger this
alert.

Some computer security tools raise an alarm when an application first opens
a connection to an external site. The Elecraft utilities are among the
programs that need that capability in order to do the firmware copy part of
their function.  However there are ways to do the FTP work yourself if you
choose not to allow the Elecraft code to do it for you.

Now back to my regular job!

73 de Dick, K6KR


-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of David Robertson
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:31 AM
To: Elecraft
Subject: [Elecraft] P3 and Norton 360

Dick,  John and everyone,
I have a very small business maintaining computer systems for local small
businesses and several private customers. In almost every situation
involving Norton 360 resulted in either the inability to share printers over
a network or false alarms with virus detection in known good applications.
The solution was to uninstall the Norton 360 and install a different
antiviral software. I have nothing against using Norton products, just stay
away from 360. It was also my experience that Norton 360 was very difficult
to uninstall. I actually had to go to the Norton web site in order to get
the application to properly eliminate 360 from the system.

Dave KD1NA

I'm the programmer of the Windows P3 Utility. It was virus scanned before it
was offered on the Elecraft web site. Yours is the first report of any virus
report.  Assuming you got the P3 Utility from the Elecraft FTP site or
Elecraft web site then you are trying to install what I wrote.

I don't have Norton Antivirus (earlier experiences led me away from it) but
there are web sites that will scan a suspicious executable with a good
number of virus detection tools. Perhaps one of those would help you decide
who to trust here. I could find one, but from a trust standpoint it would be
better for you to find it yourself or from someone else.

I don't know what I could change to satisfy your Norton software.

I can tell you that the P3 Utility includes an FTP client, and in order to
do its intended function, it must be allowed to contact the Elecraft FTP
site in order to copy P3 firmware from Elecraft's FTP server to your
computer. All the Elecraft Utilities (K3, W2, K144XV and P3) include thus
function.

Dick, K6KR


Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 23, 2010, at 5:51 AM, "John E. Reiser" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello Elecrafters,
>
> I have been trying unsuccessfully to install the P3 Utility (Windows
Version 1.3.7.22).   My virus protection program, Norton 360, will not allow
it.  Norton pops up a message that a serious security breach has occurred.
Then I'm asked to restart my computer.
>
> I tried the install a couple of times on each of two different computers,
one running Windows XP, and the other running Vista.  The results were
exactly the same.
>
> I know, I know, turn off the Norton 360.  But hold on a minute,  Norton
360 is just doing its job  Something is wrong with the way the latest P3
Utility is coded.  Norton 360 has never before objected to any program
installations on these computers, including several versions of the K3
Utility.
>
> I am hoping that the programmer of the P3 Utility reads this and fixes the
problem with the code.
>
> I have received notification that my P3 is about to be shipped, so I need
the Utility to be working on my computer soon.
>
> Many thanks and 73,
>
> John, W2GW
>
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html