Eengstro’s Blog

Yet another reason that Norton Internet Security sucks: When a user is logged in to Windows Vista with a “Standard user” account, the Program Control feature of Norton’s Personal Firewall will always block new or unfamiliar programs. It will also always block programs that have been updated (which, since they have changed, are treated as “new or unfamiliar”). Because Firefox and IE update themselves regularly, this is a major annoyance.

This problem happens whether the Firewall Processing is set to “Automatically decide what to do” or “Ask me what to do”. Neither setting works in a Standard user account:

• “Automatically decide” doesn’t have write access to the Program Control list, so Norton can’t unblock a program even if it wants to;
• “Ask me” doesn’t ask.

The upshot is that a “Standard user” account eventually becomes unusable (for Internet access) because Norton’s firewall won’t change its settings to “re-allow” an updated Firefox or IE to access the Internet.

To fix a blocked program in a Standard user account, one must access Norton’s Program Control settings (Start -> All Programs -> Norton Internet Security -> Norton Internet Security -> Settings -> Personal Firewall -> Configure -> Program Control). Note that this requires an administrator account password after clicking Configure. Click the program you wish to allow access to (Firefox, IE, etc). Yes, it is probably listed with an Access level of Auto or Allow, but Norton is lying to you — it’s actually blocked, and will remain blocked even if you fiddle with the Access setting. Note the path to the program’s .exe file (i.e. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe). Click Remove, then click Yes to confirm. Now, click Add, navigate to the program’s .exe file (you just noted that path earlier), and double-click the executable file (note that Vista might hide the “.exe” part of the filename). Choose “Allow”, then click OK. Finally, click OK (or Apply) to dismiss the main Options window.

The other potential fix is to run an Administrator account rather than a Standard user account. In an Administrator account, both “Automatically decide” and “Ask me” will work correctly. Note the irony: a security program forcing the user to use an Administrator account, which is less secure than a Standard user account! This might be even worse than McAfee using ActiveX controls in its interface. But at least you won’t have to “fix” the Program Control every every time your browser updates itself.