avast/norton safety minder issue

[rjrizzuto]

Please see http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=OnlineFamily&message.id=2503&query.id=1085552#M2503.  There is a mention that NSM "work at the network driver level".  Also they mention that they are willing to work with other development teams.

[DavidR]

That is strange because the web shield as far as I'm aware doesn't work at network driver level, but uses a simple localhost loopback to ensure http port 80 traffic is scanned.

So this one is way over my experience level, lets see if one of the Alwil team can pick up on it.

[rjrizzuto]

I did check tcpview, and NSM doesn't even show, maybe related to driver level.

[rjrizzuto]

FWIW, it appears that the issue with browsing does not impact other non-browser internet access, as far as I can tell.

[rjrizzuto]

I read in the Avast manual that the Web Shield runs as a proxy and that under Win 95 you need to manually set IE for the proxy, but that is not required under XP.  So I decided that maybe that IS needed when you add NSM into the mix.  I manually set IE to use localhost and port 12080 for the proxy, and enabled Avast's web shield, and voila!  I can now browse the internet with Web Shield enabled and NSM running.

[DavidR]

Thanks for the update, glad that you have things working now. So it looks like NSM interferes with the transparent redirection to the web shield proxy rather than there being an incompatibility issue with the web shield or it wouldn't work even using manual redirection.

Perhaps you could post that in the forum topic that you gave the link for.

[rjrizzuto]

It looks like I declared success too early.  The manual proxy config does allow me to access the web via IE, but it also bypasses NSM's filtering.

[DavidR]

That's a shame.

It really would be nice to know exactly how NSM works (Filters/logs) but I guess they aren't going to say in a hurry.

IF NSM is purely logging where they have been and done, then in my way of thinking that is a day late and a dollar short, as they have already done it and to lose the protection of the web shield just to have NSM for me is a poor trade off.

Have you considered using OpenDNS as that can be set up using the dashboard feature to block certain categories of site, etc. so you have a proactive rather than a reactive measure (if NSM is just logging). I believe you can have it set up for different accounts/PCs, etc.

[rjrizzuto]

NSM is configurable.  It can be set to log, log and warn, or log and block.  I have it set to log and block.

I am familiar with OpenDNS, but it doesn't have the per-user logging I require.

For now, I am using Avast without the web shield.  I'm hoping that I'll eventually be able to use Web Shield, but I think Alwil and Symantec development folk will have to get involved.  

I really like Avast, but I need NSM.   The thing that I find surprising is they work fine together (including Web Shield) under Vista, but not under XP.   Unfortunately, upgrading to Vista is not a possibility considering the age tothe computers.

[DavidR]

I would have though they would be the same if it works under Vista it should work under XP.

I think that OpenDNS has a paid for option, perhaps that has a logging function.

Other than that unfortunately I'm out of ideas.

[rjrizzuto]

Even if OpenDNS had a logging feature, they can only log what sites were accessed from my house, not which person went where.    I wouldn't know if my son or daughter were looking at an inappropriate (for children) site, or if if was my wife.  NSM has the fine grained logging I need.