Sygate Personal Firewall Killed

[erRor67]

Symantec Corp. will discontinue sales and support for customers who bought personal security products from Sygate Inc., which Symantec purchased in October.

Symantec shelved Sygate's Personal Firewall and Personal Firewall Pro products last week. The announcement is the first indication that the Cupertino, Calif., company intends to cancel some Sygate products and move customers to its own platform, and it surprised some Sygate customers, who accused Symantec of wanting to kill off competing security technology.

Sygate Personal Firewall Pro customers will receive special upgrade pricing to move to Symantec's Norton family of security products. However, Sygate's enterprise software is not affected by the announcement, Symantec officials said.

Symantec's statement follows misleading notices on its Web site that suggested the company might be dropping sales and support of Sygate's entire product line.

Symantec purchased Sygate for an undisclosed sum to acquire endpoint security and compliance products, such as Sygate On-Demand and Sygate NAC (Network Access Control).

Symantec officials have stated publicly that the company plans to use Sygate's Universal NAC System technology to enforce business policies and automate security practice within enterprises, which will help with network security and regulatory compliance. The company also said it plans to integrate Sygate's NAC agent with Symantec's LiveUpdate and LiveState Patch Manager services.

In an interview with eWEEK in August, Sygate President and CEO John DeSantis said that, for the time being, Symantec would sell all of Sygate's software as "stand-alone products" following the consummation of the deal. Symantec would begin integrating Sygate's technology into the Symantec product portfolio in the first half of next year, DeSantis said.

However, information posted on the Symantec Web site and noticed by some Sygate customers suggested otherwise. A notice labeled Service & Support said that "all Sygate products and forum support will be discontinued" on Nov. 30.

That message riled some Sygate customers and prompted broadside attacks on Symantec in one online customer forum.

"Symantec, you're not going to gain any customers from this crime you have perpetrated against us. You have taken away a product many of us wanted to continue using and haven't offered a replacement," read one submission to a Sygate support forum by an individual who used the online handle "Colonel Kenobi."

However, the Web site message was a mistake, said Symantec spokesperson Genevieve Haldeman.

Symantec is working to update the notice to specify that only the Personal Firewall and Personal Firewall Pro products are being discontinued, officials said.

Symantec plans to continue to support and develop the Sygate enterprise products, including Sygate Enterprise Protection, On-Demand, NAC and Sygate Embedded, officials said.

Symantec officials did not provide details on what the company would do with the Personal Firewall technology it acquired. However, a Symantec executive told eWEEK in October that Symantec plans to replace its enterprise firewall with Sygate's technology.

Source: eWeek

Well, ever since Symantec bought sygate, we all knew it was comming (no new updates, etc etc). But personally, I dont like Norton. It failed me too many times.

[Guest Greg]

Sygate has been owned. By one of THE crappest security companies since I invented holioplaguesomiac.

[Lite]

So wheres your evidence to backup your (flawed) claim greg?

[Guest Greg]

I'm into my flawed claims, I have no evidence just about 60% of this forum enjoy having a computer which doesn't fry from over-usage, especially when it's not them to blame :(

I'm just a critic towards what many Internet users that agree on the Anti-Norton frontline.

[Lite]

Norton (or any symantec) products havent "fried" ones computer.

[Guest Greg]

Unfortunetly, they have Lite. 'Am sorry to say, but I'll find the website where Norton locked all the computer and well, it went off to Hiberate for about 2 hours, he came back the whole Power Output box had been fried by overdosage of processes which obviously caused the comp to over-work and die.

Bear with me :(

[Samurai]

This myth about Norton using extremely high system resources is really getting out of hand. Yes, years ago, they had a very bad problem with this. It took them a long time to fix this problem and it is no where near as bad as people claim. Unless people are running it under the recommended specifications, they deserve for their PC to lock up for not checking beforehand.

The system requirements now are realistic, and when I tested the 2006 version last month it was very fast, and the memory footprint was around the same as Thunderbird.

Do the same people moan about Thunderbird's "heavy" system resources as well?

It seems mud really does stick <_>

[Guest Greg]

As much as I agree with you, I've had countless memories of Norton being attached to my computer and them memories aren't the best.

The first time I installed Norton, was Systemworks 2003, it deleted a crucial file and recommended for me to re-install a Service Pack for some reason. So I did, this then made the computer components ('Regedit, Twain32 , Cab, Logon, boot.ini and automatic regenerating Unins000s' become corrupt which caused a major cause for concern because my Registry was now messed up with over 500 entries corrupt or incorrect.

Self-uninstalling programs, auto-logging off, yes, wonderful Norton.

It was bad if you want to put it politely, and I guess that $500 computer I brought, just wasn't enough money for Symantec and Norton.

They chew on too much fat these days, it's gunna eventually sink in for them to ease off and let the minor AV's come in to play.

Take etrust, NOD32 and others, minor companies. Massive scale. And massive popularity.

I'm sorry to repeat myself. Symantec and Norton have been OWNED.

[Samurai]

The first time I installed Norton, was Systemworks 2003, it deleted a crucial file and recommended for me to re-install a Service Pack for some reason.

I doubt that NSW deleted a crucial file from your system. It could be that it was infected or altered, and placed it in it's quarantine section.

So I did, this then made the computer component corrupt which caused a major cause for concern because my Registry was now messed up with over 500 entries corrupt or incorrect.

Self-uninstalling programs, auto-logging off and everything.

So, by one file "deleted", you didn't think to replace it using an XP CD, or OEM version on your hard drive? Self-uninstalling programs makes no sense, as NSW does not have this capability, especially in 2003.

It was bad, and I guess that $500 computer I brought, just wasn't enough money for Symantec and Norton.

They chew on too much fat these days, it's gunna eventually sink in for them to ease off and let the minor AV's come in to play.

Take etrust, NOD32 and others, minor companies. Massive scale. And massive popularity.

Again, this is just people's opinions. The majority of tests performed by independants all show Norton as a steady workforce with good detection rates. I've tested it out myself, and can assure you it would not slow down a typical users PC. Newer brands do not always mean better... Norton have the experience.

I think alot of the critiscism's you see today have been passed on from the Dark Ages. Sort of like "Chinese Whispers". The thing is, people tend to exaggerate when they complain about a product... it's human nature. The same thing happens when people want to applaude a product. The reason is that people want other people to know how good, or bad a product is... and the best way to do this is to get their attention, by exaggerating slightly.

What may have happened to you is this...

You installed Norton. It found infected Windows file. Quarantined it as it could not repair. This file was somewhat critical, and caused some entries in the registry to become obsolete. At some stage you installed SP1*. This could not run with certain programs and they needed to be uninstalled, making you think it was Norton's doing.

*May I also add at this point that SP1 was released on Sep 9th 2002. If your PC was brand new when you got it in 2003, it would have been shipped with SP1 slipstreamed, unless of course you built it yourself. This leads me onto your other statement about how much your PC was... $500 right? Even in 2003, your PC was no doubt unlikely to run anything decent, let alone SP1. I think the min specs for SP1 were 256MB memory, and I doubt you had more for a $500 PC. It's all well and good pointing the finger, but no one is the first to admit when they're wrong.

I'm sorry to repeat myself. Symantec and Norton have been OWNED.

Opinion.

[Guest Greg]

I agree Samurai, the rumours have been floating around the Internet for a long time now and I wasn't one of the last to get the ear-full of it.

I went through these stages quite recently, particular to get to the bottom of this stupid 'opinion' I found that Norton responded different and when it locked up, it filtered the processes towards a different process or what seemed to be.

My computer I have now is on loan from a company I used to work for, they specialize in Custom Computers starting from £700 and I was admitted to Norton most of the time, I don't use it now, I removed it.

When I used Systemworks 2003, it did delete the crucial file I needed, and it operated against what I wanted it to do. It responding incorrectly and didn't do what Norton should of done.

The file wasn't infected because it hadn't been edited since the machine was customized.

I don't nessasary blame it on Norton, but 95.9% of me suspects this 'sly' AV.

[Nemesis]

hi, I have been reading this thread-turned-argument and I have to say that Symantec sucks candy sticks. Like norton anit-virus, it takes forever to scan for viruses

[erRor67]

Meh, its all opinion. Some like Symantec, some dont. Some like pron, some dont. Some like Bush, some dont. :dance2:

[Guest MM2_fre@k]

Damm, that's very bad news

I'm a hardcore user of sygate personal firewall

>_> I use that program because Norton slows down my system very much, I even got blue error screens in winxppro, never had that before

Again a nice product that disappeared from the market

[Guest Greg]

hi, I have been reading this thread-turned-argument and I have to say that Symantec sucks candy sticks. Like norton anit-virus, it takes forever to scan for viruses

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well 69, it's not an arguement, it's a debate. No-one can decide whos right and who is wrong. No-one is right and no-one is wrong.

Virus Scanners are designed to thoroughly scan through a computer, depending on how much space you have taken up will determine the time for a successfull and complete Virus Scan.

Damm, that's very bad news

I'm a hardcore user of sygate personal firewall

>_> I use that program because Norton slows down my system very much, I even got blue error screens in winxppro, never had that before

Again a nice product that disappeared from the market

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is indeed, I used it for a few weeks and It was okay I gotta say, Norton does give those with un-gifted computers a rotten chance of being protected. My opinion stated..

[myidisbb]

i fired sygate firewall because it calling home on port 443 (time warner telecom) when i used certain programs online. ei newsleecher and agent for newsgroups. it got to the point of 5 times a minute every 5 minutes it looks like. all block by having pg2 blocking https.

no one is going to agree on good, bad or fine firewalls nor anti virus scanners. like some of the admins/mods have said, "its all base on taste and preference."

using outpost now. not one port 443 since then. now if i can only fix napster with wmp and get rid of that part. looking into firing nod 32. i think it gives me false hits on ad-watch.

[Zeus_Hunt]

Important Notice: Effective November 30th, 2005 all Sygate consumer firewall products will be discontinued. For technical assistance with these products, please email [email protected]. In addition, the consumer firewall support forum will be available for 60 days per our standard support policy. Note: this end of life only applies to the consumer firewall products and does not affect Sygate's Enterprise firewall and endpoint compliance products, which are still be updated and supported. Thank you and we look forward to assisting you with the wonderful line of Symantec products. Please click here for Symantec Support.

If your Sygate Personal Firewall product is due for renewal, please visit Symantec's online store for special upgrade pricing on Norton products.If you did not previously own a Sygate Personal Firewall product, please click here to visit Symantec's online store.

If you are a large corporation (>500 employees) and need a centrally managed personal firewall or security policy enforcement solution, please click here for more information on our enterprise product, Sygate Secure Enterprise.

This what I get wen I went to Sygate Personal Firewall Pro

When I visited >> Visit our Small to Medium Businesses and Home/Home Office website

It takes me to www.symantecstore.com :rolleyes:

Thank you for visiting the Sygate Online Store!

Important Notice: Effective November 30th, 2005 all Sygate personal firewall products will be discontinued. This does not affect Sygate's Enterprise firewall and endpoint compliance products, which will still be updated and supported.

And I find nothing but Norton and Symantec all over :P

I will hold on to the Sygate Pro installation file :P