Norton 2007 Incompatibility Warning Breeds Insecurity

Many users like to take a best of breed approach to security products rather than locking themselves into a security suite from one vendor. But the experience one reader just had with Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2007 identifying his favorite firewall and anti-package packages as "incompatible applications" makes you wonder how much longer such an approach will be possible. "I have been using Norton Antivirus 200

A little Googling shows others have run into the NAV 2007 incompatibility message with these and other products, but just how widespread the problems are and in what circumstances they occur is not clear. When contacted yesterday, spokespersons said that all actual incompatibilities will be corrected soon. "Many security software vendors, including Symantec, have worked closely for years to resolve similar software conflicts and will continue to do so as new security technologies emerge," said a Symantec spokesperson, who was not able to confirm what Symantec knows about NAV 2007 conflicts with ZoneAlarm Pro or Spy Sweeper by press time. A ZoneLabs spokesperson said the company is not aware of conflicts with NAV 2007, but that any that emerge will be temporary. A Webroot spokesperson told me there is a known issue with how Spy Sweeper identifies NAV 2007 that can lead users to halt the install, and the problem will be corrected in the next release of the anti-spyware program.

So perhaps, at least for the time being, users can still choose the products they prefer in each security category. One thing for sure though is that Symantec support's handling of the situation has cost it one NAV 2007 customer. "Whatever the source of the incompatibilities, the way I was told to address them was wrong," the reader wrote. "If anyone else runs into similar problems, and doesn't want to waste a day on the phone, I'd suggest they think twice about referring their issues to Symantec support."

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