0x80072EFD and other internet problems with Norton Personal Firewall
I was in the process of cleaning a PC from multiple nasty Malware infections, when I needed to start XP normally, in order to install and update Windows Defender, Avira Antivir, MalwareBytes, and SuperAntiSpyware.
The strange thing was that Malwarebytes could get internet updates, but SAS, defender and antivir could not.
Internet Explorer seemed to be working normally.
Defender would give a 0x80072EFD error
SAS would say something like: Make sure your firewall is not blocking superantispyware.exe
Nothing on the internet helped.
But then I started to look at the services carefully, and I noticed that some Norton / Symantec services were disabled.
I eventually found out what happened:
someone had tried to uninstall Norton Personal Firewall (NPF), but it didn’t complete (I’m not surprised), or it was removed incorrectly.
In the und, I found that the norton/Symantec services had all been disabled, and the c:program filesnorton personal firewall folder had been removed.
But had been overlooked was: c:program filescommon filessymantec shared
Once that folder had been deleted, internet access returned to normal, and I could finally use SAS to remove any remaining infections that Malwarebytes had missed.
Great tips, I wish I knew this a few weeks ago. After Norton ran out I decided to upgrade to Norton 360 and had two high risk viruses. Malware AntiBytes removed them but certain Norton products were removed. When I called Norton support they wanted 140 bucks to fix it and then they only guaranteed 7 days without any spyware. Nice huh? Off to Future Shop I went and paid 50 bucks for the problem to be fixed. I think it is time to look into another program…any other suggestions besides Norton? I hear Zone Alarm paid version is better….what do you think?
Many years ago, I had such severe problems with zonealarm, that I swore I would never use it again.
ZL might be better now, but I wouldn’t know. I’ve also seen unusual problems with McAfee, Trend, and AVG.
I personally like Avira (uses minimal system resources).
You can also try nod32 & avast, but I cannot be sure how good they are at the moment.
Everyone has their own “favourites”, but the technology (and infections) change so often, that I cannot be sure what’s the best at any point in time…
Wish i have known it earlier. I am an avid user of Norton but after my computer crashed, i give up. and decided to switch on other security software. However, after reading this post, i will return on using it again at the soonest possible time.