Website Issues and Norton

So, apparently, Norton/Semantec are having issues.  I tried to get to this blog and I got a message that it's a fraudulent site... WTH?!  I tried in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and got the same thing, but Mozilla Firefox was fine and didn't have an issue with my blog.  So, I called Norton to see if they could assist me and find out why.  I was getting upset because I didn't want someone coming to my blog, thinking I was doing something wrong... and I told them that (once I finally got through to someone) and I told them that I'd cancel my subscription.  Which I may do anyway, but the jury's still out on that one.

Meanwhile, as the horrible hold music played, I decided to do some research on my own and saw something about ebay having similar issues.  Hmmm.... nothing else came up, though.  About that time, someone came on the line and took some info, put me on hold, came back, got some more info, put me on hold.... this went on until she finally decided to give me a case # and transfer me to tech support.  Great.  I thought I'd called tech support, but apparently the tech support number is directly to Miss Twenty Questions who then transfers you if she deems you worthy.

Anywhoo... I then get a guy who asks me a few of the same questions that the first lady asked.  One of which was if Norton was showing any viruses or issues.  No, it was showing that everything was okie dokie.  Then he says that ebay was also having some issues and had been for a while and for me to run the Live Update on my Norton 360 now while on the phone and then every day for 24 - 48 hours and then see if anything's better.

Great.  42 minutes of my life I'll never get back.  At least they were honest about it, though, and actually admitted that they were having issues.  Most everyone these days, are all trying to pass the buck.

I decided to then run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and with only the Quick Scan (which usually isn't very complete, usually I run the Full Scan to be sure I get everything, but decided I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get results) and it found 60 problems!  60!  Norton 360 that I spent good money on (about 60 bucks!) showed nothing! What the heck did I pay for?!  A little yellow box on my computer screen is not worth what I paid when it doesn't do it's job.

Malwarebytes, which cost less than half the amount of Norton 360 (at about 25 bucks,) detected AND removed 60 issues!  Granted, Malwarebytes doesn't sit there and scan on it's own on a constant basis.  You have to manually run the scan yourself.  But considering the Norton 360, which does constantly monitor (although I'm not sure what it monitors, exactly) didn't catch 60 bad little buggies, then why bother having it?!

Personally, I miss the days of BlackICE, but I don't think they're in business anymore.  It's a shame, though.  That was the BEST anti-everything product that I'd ever had!  Supposedly, IBM bought it and promptly killed it, which is terrible, since it was the best out there.  But back in the day, it was free and I suppose that's not good for business.  Don't know why they wouldn't have continued it though... I'd have paid money for a reliable product.  I've paid money for bad products, I'd rather throw my money after the good stuff for once, but alas, when something finally works, someone's got to come around and destroy it so no one can have it.  Doesn't make sense to me, but that's unfortunately the way things are.

I tried to Google BlackICE, but got an eclectic assortment of sites, none of which were even remotely close to what I was looking for, with the one exception, which is the one where I got the alleged idea that IBM had killed it.

Be careful if you search for BlackICE.  I came across everything from shoes to some, well, let's say erotic-like sites, and everything in between.... dog sledding (yes, really,) music, security services (as in security officers,) and of course, how to drive on black ice.  And if you ever lived in a cold climate, this one would actually be useful.

Another Black Ice that I found that was even slightly interesting was for Black Ice, a polearm in World of Warcraft.  But that doesn't help me here either.  But I've got to put up a fun picture of something.  

Anyway, at least, after all that jazz, I can actually get to my blog.  Not sure for how long, but at least I'm here.  So, if you run into a similar situation, and have Norton installed, run the stupid live updates, then get yourself a reliable program, like Malwarebytes, and run it as well, and then cross your fingers and toes.  

I hope this was helpful to someone... anyone... or at least, amusing.  Hopefully, after running my scans, my computer's all ok.  We'll see.  Hopefully, Norton get's it act straight and figures out what's wrong on their end as well.  In the meantime, scan your computer regularly and stay safe while surfing the net.