Hi Geoff,

No problem - happy to help, I got notification as it caused problems for a few enterprise users as well.

Norton isn't as bad as it was pre-2012 by all accounts, but for a home users on a laptop, you really should give Microsoft security essentials a try, it's very light and hardly slows systems at all and the detection is actually very good.

I never ever though I'd recommend or use a M$ AV product - but this on does actually work and finds all sorts of odd things other manage to miss.

It's also quick and easy to install and remove - so well worth a go.

Does security essentials work with XP? I have another laptop with McAfee whose subscription runs out in November. I'm really not going to pay to renew a dodgy programme!

Hi Geoff - Yes, you need it to be on SP3 though - which it really should be...

It is!

My changes:-

Dr. Solomons got taken over;
Norton Internet Security for several years, till it gor so utterly bloated it really killed the machine;
Norton 360, hoping it was a new kernel so more efficient. It wasn't, so ditched it after a few months;
Kaspersky IS, two or three years. That too became bloated after being excellent. Also went down in the AV comparisons I watch
Avera, one or two years. Also seemed to go off;
Now been on the latest Norton IS for two or three years and perfectly happy with it.

I like AV Comparatives. The detailed analysis of the test results is very useful, to weigh against the overall results.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I like AV Comparatives. The detailed analysis of the test results is very useful, to weigh against the overall results.

I'm a big fan of PC Pro's magazine's comparative reviews but the same as AV Comparativies they tend to review these products in isolation.

With more and more people using web/cloud email (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo mail etc) thanks to ISPs including Sky and Virgin using Google to power the email - the email scanning is no longer required.

Some AV tools *really* wreck machines in the name of security. I've seen servers that used to host 5,000 users file&print brought to its knees in less than 3 hours after McAfee was installed. Remove McAfee and the server works fine for weeks without a hitch.

I go with MS, especially if you're using Vista or 7 (or 8). They're unlikely to break Windows in the name of security

My cousin also uses Norton IS and he's very happy with it

I use KIS 2012 as a freebee from Barclays but I tried the free Comodo IS a while ago and found it just as effective and very similar to KIS 2012 - both are very light on system resources also, actually KIS 2012 is only using ~20,000K as I speak.

Interestingly, my bank screwed up a few weeks ago and they were really excellent in getting out information, progress updates and even financial compensation. McAfee has my email address which they use without hesitation to bombard me with offers and reminders that they want another pile of cash to continue my protection. But I had to find out about this from the forum here. Anyway the fix involves Safe Mode to get onto the web, then running a file which will allegedly fix it all. I'll report back. Just wondering though whether to do a restore to the week before last sometime as I haven't changed anything that I can remember. I could then do a manual definitions update which should not contain the buggy ones. Can anyone say which would be the better solution. I'm just wary about running yet more McAfee script on my computer.

Your post is unclear. What is this safe mode procedure you are attempting, and what does your bank have to do with anything?

Also is this file from a reputable source?

OK, your original problem.

Let's clarify a few things

Did you change anything between last night / the last time it was rebooted, and between now? ANYTHING AT ALL?

Connect the laptop to your router with a cable, rule out wireless for one moment
Can you PING the router IP address?
Can you PING www.google.com?

Can you run an "ipconfig /all" - post the ENTIRE contents here please.

Admittedly, I am not aware of these McAfee problems which may well be the cause if they put out an update which did things like this, but no basic diagnostics like above have been carried out so far....