Thread: Windows and AntiVirus- Can ping Cannot browse

It was Thanksgiving and I went to my adviser's place. He had a Toshiba laptop with a weird error. None of the browsers could connect to internet. However, if you ping any website using command prompt you do get replies. That means the laptop connects to the internet but not through a browser. I tried various things such as disabling Symantec antivirus, even disabling firewall and trying to run browser as an administrator but to no avail. Finally, before giving up I wanted to try the virgin OS, it was XP in this case. So I downloaded Norton removal tool from their website. After that I uninstalled Norton antivirus and then ran this tool to remove the residues. It asked for a restart and Voila. Everything was working fine. The browsers connected to internet without any problem.
The issue was with Norton for sure. But what was the issue? The thing is that laptop these days come with a pre-installed version of Norton. If you uninstall that one and install a new version it might conflict with earlier version and cause weird issues in your OS. You need to run Norton Removal tool once you uninstall their product. In short, Norton Sucks. I don't recommend a product which needs a special removal tool. If I were Symantec I would bundle this tool in the un-installation package. Anyways, I hope this will come handy.

Thanks for sharing the information about the Norton Removal Tool. I knew about this issue and the removal tool... It happens with lot of the new Notebook users, especially after the pre-installed Norton expires.. This thread will surely guide them to resolve the issue.

Rep++

it's strange that you would need a special removal tool after uninstallation of norton.. few years back i had norton on my system and after it expired, i just renewed it online.. a week later my laptop crashed (god knows why) and i wanted to re install norton again.. but i could not get any link to download it nor did i have any key for activation. i called norton and they informed me that i could not re install it coz i need the original software for it as it was set to only renew and not re install.. i asked for my money back to which they agreed. since then i have never used norton again.. i switched AVG free virus scanner and it worked perfect.

Originally Posted by itsmemad

Thanks for sharing the information about the Norton Removal Tool. I knew about this issue and the removal tool... It happens with lot of the new Notebook users, especially after the pre-installed Norton expires.. This thread will surely guide them to resolve the issue.

Rep++

Thanks bro. It was really weird and I spent my thanksgiving evening working on this problem. I am glad I could find the source of this error.

Originally Posted by funguru

it's strange that you would need a special removal tool after uninstallation of norton.. few years back i had norton on my system and after it expired, i just renewed it online.. a week later my laptop crashed (god knows why) and i wanted to re install norton again.. but i could not get any link to download it nor did i have any key for activation. i called norton and they informed me that i could not re install it coz i need the original software for it as it was set to only renew and not re install.. i asked for my money back to which they agreed. since then i have never used norton again.. i switched AVG free virus scanner and it worked perfect.

Seriously, any software that can not uninstall right squarely can not be a good software. Norton sucks big time.

Originally Posted by dinwal

Seriously, any software that can not uninstall right squarely can not be a good software. .

It's a characteristic of viruses...