[Compumaniac12]

I have been using firefox for about a year now, gotta say i love it. but this problem happens for both firefox and IE. Im going to initally blame it on the norton trial i had, but ill leave that up to you to decide.
When i use my website or any other website i get really unstable cookies, they work temporarily, some of the time. This prevents me from: administating phpbb forums, listening to internet radio and many other things.

I had just uninstalled a norton trial when it started, i did find a temporary solution which is to clear all cookies, but the problem returns about a day later. Im thinking it has to do with the excess security of norton.

anyway, thank you for your assistance.

 

[martt]

Since the problem exists with Fx and IE, it would seem not to be anything to do with them but more something affecting both. If it only started with removing Norton, then I'd agree that it has to be a suspect. As I understand it, Norton can be a bit of a job to remove entirely and maybe vestiges of it being left over could be causing the problem. Look up 'norton removal' on a search engine for suggestions. The 'Norton Removal Tool' and other methods are mentioned. I'm not a Norton user so I'm not sure if these removal methods rely on Norton being installed to work, or if they will act as a 'clean-up' tool after Norton is uninstalled. Perhaps others might advise on this.

Do you have a 'System Restore' point available from a time before Norton Trial was installed? If so, perhaps try going back to that. This could return your computer's behaviour back to how it used to be. What security measures are you using now? If they were installed after uninstalling Norton and you use a restore point that was created before it was installed, it could be necessary to re-install current security (and any other) programs.

 

[Compumaniac12]

im without any security tools at the moment, i generally use norton to clear viruses when i get them, but i dont like it sitting around on my pc because it is far more powerful then i want.

When i ran it (about a week ago) it found 2 big bugs on my computer and took care of them, what it deleted could also be a problem.

ill try a system restore point, but i would rather not because ive fixed alot of things since norton.

thanks for the advice

 

[throoper]

Go to this thread for instructions on cleaning up the last of Norton,

http://www.techsupportforum.com/

You might want to try AVG or Avast for anti-virus. Both uninstall clean if you don't like them. Also read this article by Glaswegian.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/f174/pc-safety-and-security-what-do-i-need-115548.html

 

[Compumaniac12]

well i did a restore to a week ago, problem solved. i havent found any big problems created from the restore so everything looks good.
Thanks.

 

[Compumaniac12]

The problem returned in the past few days, it seems to happen occasionally then more often then always. again i am unable to do 2 things which need good cookies.

I havent used norton, i did clear aton of crap from my computer last weekend to fit flight simulator. I still dont understand why it breaks down, its like it has a mind of its own. Is there any tool that helps repair cookie settings and windows components that include those settings.

again i could system restore if i really had to but I would rather not. I know i may be asking for a lot here but i dont get it...

Is it possible it has to do with a lack of security on my part? maybe im picking up a bug and its doing this?

 

[Kalim]

If its anything its an unstable application on your PC that can interfere with other applications such as your browsers here: i.e. Norton. You made it clear that you didn't experience this problem before Norton, so it sticks out as a sore thumb - like it always has.

Uninstall Norton totally, use the removal tool and correct procedures, reboot and then see how everything goes. Software and links mentioned by throoper are exactly what I would be recommending here and yes, only having a trial AV is way under secure and prone.

 

[Compumaniac12]

since i did that system restore i havent used any antivirus. as far as the computer is concerened norton never was installed. I had system restore at maximum size and it cleared everything that had changed, including an entire game of mine...

I can use system restore and fix the problem again. I just wanted to make sure noone knows what specifically might be causing the problem because system restore changes a million things and its not really fixing the problem just ignoring it.

 

[Compumaniac12]

well i did the restore and half of the problem is solved...
im sick of this getting in the way, it has a mind of its own.

If you guys dont have any ideas i dont blame you, ill just find a way around it.

 

[martt]

Now that everything is working OK (or is that only more or less?), perhaps try running the computer without any cleaning up to see if that was responsible for the problem recurring. How did you clean the dross out of the system? Cleaners can be a bit too efficient sometimes and occasionally take out things that are needed. The original problem was no doubt the Norton episode but do you think the problem coming back again could have been related to cleaning the system?

EDIT: I think you should get some sort of AV program installed. A scan for problems with a few anti-malware programs is a good thing to do from time to time.

 

[Kalim]

Addition to martt's advice, what exact problems do you face on any sites?
You didn't happen to use a registry "cleaner" did you?

On any site, where they are not functioning adequately, if you press Ctrl+F5 does that reload change the situation? (it should)

In Tools>Options>Privacy, do you have "accept cookies from sites - keep until I close Firefox" chosen?

You will need to have.

 

[Compumaniac12]

Sorry i wasnt clear, everything isnt working and i did restore back to when i recall it working.

i cleared alot of temp files, old programs of mine, old docs.

I didnt really get into the windows folder, i did quite about to docs and settings

I Just tried the other account, and there are no problems over there so that says i screwed with something in the documents and settings so ill see if i can find what it was.

 

[Compumaniac12]

well, the problem remains, and i tried a brand new windows account and still had the same problem, the thing has a mind of its own and i cant seem to figure it out.

Ill go through the story 1 more time then call it quits of nothing is new.

Cookies dont work, for example i just jumped to this forum and i dont think ill be logged in untill after i type this post and it asks me to.
My forums have the same problem (devfile.com) i show up and im not logged in, the "new post" signals i can only see 1 time, so i cant really see if my forum is active or not. and i cant use the administration panel because it requires a cookie to get past the second login.
I cant listen to my internet radio (fox951.com) because that requires cookies aswell.

Ive tried screwing with the firefox settings, ive tried IE, problem in both.

I got a currupt file warning somewhere in my docs and settings/ temp internet files something md5. I dont remember exactly, it told me to do a scandisk to fix it and i did and its gone. That might not have anything to do with this...

then i tried the other account i keep on here for security purposes, and it worked the 1 time i tried it over there.

then i created a new account and the only things i moved were my docs and my desktop shortcuts to the new account. and it turns out that the brand new account didnt work either.

Ive been administrating my forums through my servers remote desktop and ide really like to get over this problem. I know its not an easy problem, as i used to post around here quite abit.

to answer more questions from above.
I dont have an AV program, i do alot of gaming and i dont have alot of CPU/GPU power so i dont like them getting in the way.
I do use ad-adware SE, and its still updates so i assume thats the latest version.
Norton antivirus we think created the problem the first time, then i system restored and it fixed it.
Then it came back around the time i started clearing alot of space, but it didnt just hit all of a sudden, i coulddnt get into my admin panel, then i could then i coulddnt and it seemed to take afew days to get to the level of being completely broken, This could be because of temporary internet files i had lying around as those usually delay those kinds of changes.
i use google web accelerator, but ive had that for quite ahwile and i dont believe its caused any problems.

 

[Compumaniac12]

ugh, now to confuse you even more, i just got into my admin panel but it only worked for 1 screen, then when i went to another section of the panel it cut out and said i wasnt logged in.

another example is on yahoo, some links use cookies, especially with the news, so sometimes they work and other times they dont. But not all cookies are broken because yahoo seems to keep my area code for weather, unless it uses ip?

 

[Kalim]

Google Web Accelerator is a waste (unless you're on a slow connection) and is known to have a few problems. Some of which are:

• Messes up cookies so forum activity is disrupted
• Logs you into others accounts and has security issues
• If there's a robot.txt at the site, some of the directories may become inaccessible.

Rid of it and then check.

 

[Compumaniac12]

o man i cant belive i wasted your time like that...

yea that was the problem, 1 of 2 worked as soon as i turned it off, i assume i can get the other one.

I guess the fact that it was made by google and worked so well with firefox took my attention away from it.