Dealing with Symantec

[Entropy]

Some of you are aware that a company called Symantec offers a substandard product called Norton AV.

Well, besides for the fact that there are more reliable and cheaper anti viruses out there, this product will sometimes complain that a trojan from our server is trying to invade your computer.

Quite a few people complained about it, and this is what appears to be the message Norton AV generates:

Intrusion: BD Insane 4.0

Intruder: eternal-lands.network-studio.com (62.93.225.26)(2000).

Risk Level: High

Protocol: TCP

Attacked IP: (my IP address)

Attacked Port: 4055

Now, I have no idea how or why the wise guys from Symantec believe that we are sending a trojan, but I can assure you our server doesn't. We feel that this whole situation is detrimental to us, as it wastes our time, and Symantec was unwilling to cooperate with us and see what is the source of this problem.

What I am suggesting is for everyone to contact them, by phone or by snail mail. Their phone number and address are on this webpage: http://www.symantec.com/feedback/contactus.jsp (in the right side menu).

I called them, but their business hours are 9 am to 5 pm, from Mon to Fri.

So please contact them during this interval, ask to speak with a representative, and tell them something such as:

"I am a player of the game Eternal Lands, which is located at www.eternal-lands.com. One of your products, Norton AV is generating multiple false alarms about the BD Insane 4.0 trojan being sent from the game server, and I believe this is a totally unprofessional attitude, as all the requests to investigate and fix this problem were ignored. I urge you to look into this problem, and if it is not fixed ASAP we will never use any of your products ever again.".

Feel free to use other words, but please be firm but polite. If the representative claims he doesn't know anything, ask to talk with a manager or technician.

If asked what Norton product you are using, and you are not using any product, tell them the truth, but say you are very concerned about those unfair tactics they use to scare their custommers, and explain how you will tell anoyone you know not to use their products, unless this problem is fixed.

 

Please let me know if you call them, and how the conversation went.

 

P.S. We have a lot of players, if we all call them, we can win. And BTW, Skype phone calls, from within the US and Canada, to US and Canada fixed lines are free.

[Bleuren]

I have made a guide on this in the helpme it's not their fault there fore how is it unprofessional? The data sending from the server to the computer is kind of similar to the data in that thread of virus they have in their data base, theirfore having them to disable the virus thread IS un professional cause there will be REAL viruses like this. It's not the servers fault nor their fault, certain files just match certain things, if you follow the directions I give there will be no problem.

 

It's quite easy too...

[RedJake]

I already dumped them for this issue, and a few others. They

don't work very well with Thunderbird either.

 

RJ

[Entropy]

I have made a guide on this in the helpme it's not their fault there fore how is it unprofessional? The data sending from the server to the computer is kind of similar to the data in that thread of virus they have in their data base, theirfore having them to disable the virus thread IS un professional cause there will be REAL viruses like this. It's not the servers fault nor their fault, certain files just match certain things, if you follow the directions I give there will be no problem.

 

It's quite easy too...

 

A professional product will not generate false alarms like that, since there are enough techniques to prevent them. And a professional company would actually work with the creator of that product and attempt to solve the problem.

[Bleuren]

Being since I registered to the customer support program on problems like this, I can probably talk to one of the people online

[Learner]

F-Secure has good products and competitive upgades ... in general they are less expensive, netter quality, and use less computer resources.

 

Please note this is a biased plug as I am a reseller for them ... but I'm a reseller because I like their product.

 

[edit] links http://www.f-secure.com/

free 30 trial http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/list.shtml

the free DOS based virus scanner virus removal tools http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/tools.shtml

[Entropy]

F-Secure has good products and competitive upgades ... in general they are less expensive, netter quality, and use less computer resources.

 

Please note this is a biased plug as I am a reseller for them ... but I'm a reseller because I like their product.

 

I second F-Secure and their products, such as F-Prot. I have no affiliation with them, but I did use F-Prot a lot, and they even have a free DOS version, which is very good and useful.

[Bleuren]

Ok here is a chatlog of when I talked to a sytamantic representive:

 

Dinesh: Hi, thank you for contacting Symantec Live Technical Support. My name is Dinesh. How may I help you?

Brian: Hello

Brian: I am talking with you on behalf of Eternal Lands

Dinesh: Hello Brain.

Brian: And we have a bit of trouble here

Dinesh: May i know what trouble you are facing?

Brian: How do I paste?

Brian: Attempted Intrusion "BD Insane 4.0" against your machine was detected and blocked.

Intruder: 62.93.225.26(2000).

Risk Level: High.

Protocol: TCP.

Attacked IP: 75.15.233.182.

Attacked Port: 1103.

 

Brian: This, is not true

Brian: It claims that the server of Eternal Lands is attempting to put a trojan on the computer blocking access, multiple users are having trouble with their connection due to this error

Dinesh: okay.

Brian: And, we would like you guys to do somethign about this so that the users can play the game without having this problem

Brian: I know how to fix it however but a lot of people don't and would like not to have to go through a proccess but just play the game

Dinesh: I understand your concern Brain, you can send your feed back through the following link:

https://secure1.symantec.com/discuss/suppor...roduct+feedback

 

 

That link right there is how we need to send our feedback to them about this problem, she said that when we send it here, our problem will be looked into and they will resolve it

Edited May 29, 2006 by Bleuren

[Learner]

F-Secure has good products and competitive upgades ... in general they are less expensive, netter quality, and use less computer resources.

 

Please note this is a biased plug as I am a reseller for them ... but I'm a reseller because I like their product.

 

I second F-Secure and their products, such as F-Prot. I have no affiliation with them, but I did use F-Prot a lot, and they even have a free DOS version, which is very good and useful.

I looked into it a little bit before, but I'm going ahead and contacting F-Secure to see if there is a way that a diverse group as our might be able to arrange a discount on licenses.

[Entropy]

I looked into it a little bit before, but I'm going ahead and contacting F-Secure to see if there is a way that a diverse group as our might be able to arrange a discount on licenses.

 

Good idea, let's vote with our wallet, as this is usually the only way a big company will care.

[bkc56]

For those who might be interested in a "free for home use" type license you might take a look at AVG Anti Virus at http://www.grisoft.com/. They also have various licenses (that cost money) for business or other uses.

[Entropy]

For those who might be interested in a "free for home use" type license you might take a look at AVG Anti Virus at http://www.grisoft.com/. They also have various licenses (that cost money) for business or other uses.

 

That's what I use, actually. It's pretty nice. And also get Windows Defender from MS, it's free and pretty good.

[Bleuren]

Stay away from free firewalls they are crap. I can't say norton is the best either

[Draym]

I had that problem with Norton AV some months ago, but well I just wiped the program out of my comp and installed another one

[roswell_r]

You will just be wasting your valuable time and symantec's valuable time by calling. As mentioned on there site there is no false positives for this detection.

 

The detection is based on a TCP connection to port 2000 and detects this as Insane Network v4.0 which is built on the XTCP trojan. There is nothing you can do to rectify this as symantec cannot refer eternal lands server as a exception.

 

Symantec Users: you will need to add this exception yourself to your firewall rules.

 

ENTROPY: what were you hoping symantec would do? exclude your server address from this threat? They cannot remove detection of this threat as it is a serious threat.

[ttlanhil]

ENTROPY: what were you hoping symantec would do? exclude your server address from this threat? They cannot remove detection of this threat as it is a serious threat.

make the detection more accurate?

false positives and false negatives are bad, and they should accept neither. the ideal anti-virus will detect all virii (no false negatives) and not misdetect valid programs (false positives).

it's understandable that it may not work properly (what complex code does always work right, let alone the rapidly changing virii-scape), but not acceptable that they won't work with the game owner and head coder to make their detection more accurate

[DarkGelf]

I can't believe there are still people using Norton's. I have seen this product go from an antivirus to crapware the last 5 or 6 years and it just keeps getting worse. I've seen IT people that swear by it go down in flames when it actually caused their company to lose data. It is bloatware, hides files that don't remove when you delete it normally, and even keeps track of what you do and shares that info like any other spyware. If you want a good free or cheap antivirus I suggest AVG, AntiVir, or Avast all of which run much better and have better detection and much lower resource usage than Norton's.

[sirdan]

nortan antivirus and firewall and all that crap came when i bought my computer and all i have had is trouble from it it fucks with games the antivirus has only found 1 virus ever i have a feeling i have had more than 1 i would strongly suggest getting something else nortan sucks balls!

[Soldus]

completely free for private individuals, you get a free license for a year after registering, you can renew it after that year for free too:

 

http://www.avast.com/index.html

 

 

edit: supports windows and linux

[m_bee]

Use a true stateful firewal like iptables, and see what can and cant be done

[Placid]

F-Secure also provide Virii products for Linux based operating systems (not that you really need it at them moment).

I used to work for a company that used F-Prot for their virii protection (a large health service organisation [no names], deployment on about 1000 pcs) and they swore by it - so its pretty reliable IMO too.

[eelriver]

Dinesh: Hello Brain.

 

lol, This would have been my first clue that I wasn't going to get anywhere.

[the_antiroot]

For those who might be interested in a "free for home use" type license you might take a look at AVG Anti Virus at http://www.grisoft.com/. They also have various licenses (that cost money) for business or other uses.

 

That's what I use, actually. It's pretty nice. And also get Windows Defender from MS, it's free and pretty good.

 

AVG is excellent, I carry an install set on my memry stick whereever I go, its not overly intrusive, and plain damn works.

 

Used with ZoneAlarm a very good (free for home use) fire wall you can really feel safe.

[Mundaus]

AVG is excellent, I carry an install set on my memry stick whereever I go, its not overly intrusive, and plain damn works.

 

Anyone else get this problem? (I'm using AVG)

[Entropy]

We, of course, can not guarantee that 3rd party, possibly illegal clients are virus free.

Which is why most of the people shouldn't use them.