Symantec EndPoint Protection (v11) - The Only Protection you Need!

Symantec is offering one of the strongest security product out there: Endpoint.

This software suite has 3 products under the hood:

• Antivirus and AntiSpyware Protection
• Proactive Threat Protection
• Network Threat Protection

This new concept here is simple: IF YOUR COMPUTER CAN NO LONGER ACCESS OR SHARE NETWORK RESSOURCES, THEN YOU ARE SAFE! That's right, once you install this piece of shitty software you won't be able to access a network share and you will be also protected against anyone trying to access your "so confidential" files and printers shares.

To make it simple, here is a breakdown of what is working out of the box and what is not.

WORKING:

1. Remote Desktop Connection
2. Internet Access
3. Antivirus? (not tested)

NOT WORKING:

1. Accessing Network Shares
2. Sharing files and printers
3. Deployment from the Symantec Console (try it, it's fun to watch a nice progress bar for 1-2 minutes, then get a confirmation that everything when OK and then walking up to the deployed workstation were absolutly nothing has been installed.)

THE BOTTOM LINE:

1. Even if you manage to enable file and printer sharing (once you found the right checkbox in EndPoint) this solution will only work temporarily. I don't know the condition yet (reboot, update) but after a week or so even if the checkbox is still active you'll lose your local file and printer share again... I ended up making my own set of rules in the firewall to allow this traffic and it seems to be permanent now.
2. Not being able to see shared ressources on your network is the most disturbing part ... I ended up reinstalling my Windows Vista 64-Bits were I had much trouble and tought the network issues were caused by Vista.
3. For now, I just disabled the Network Threat Protection to regain access to the shared stuff... but I discovered some annoying lag while browsing the network (I tought my wireless mouse batteries were low at first!). My computer was slow and choppy when accessing a network share so I also disabled Proactive Threat Protection as well.

Nice work Symantec!

P.S. Vista 64-Bits sucks and so does Symantec Endpoint. Install Creative Suite 3 on top of that and you'll begin to understand why people want to switch to MAC or Linux.

Update on Monday, October 27, 2008 at 12:48 by Patrick Laforte

A little note to mention that I updated Symantec Endpoint Protection to version 11.0.3001 MR3 on my Windows Vista 64-Bits and I still have theses issues...

STILL NOT RESOLVED

I must also mention I wasted *again* 1 hour of my life trying to make a simple file share on my home network between two computer... I was thinking "It can't be Symantec, there is no icon on my destop tray..." I felt like a newbie when I found that indeed it was symantec endpoint was running on this computer and for some *again* obscure reasons the icon didn't show.

Network Path not found said Vista. Yes I know it can answer to a Ping but hey.

Comments

[TW]

Everyone that knows about symantec know that as soon as you install their firewall products, you run into problems. That is why I was really disappointed when I saw that they switched SAV to SEP and made it look like their home AV solution.

Then I took the time to read all the documentation and made a custom package that doesn't include the firewall. On the console, I selected my test workstation and installed the package. Everything worked fine so I installed it on my own workstation, then another one and I finally deployed it to my whole network without problems.