"Dangerous Website Blocked"

[BruceR]

For the last couple of years I have enjoyed regular surfing of this forum. But in the last week I get a message from Norton saying "Dangerous Website Blocked". I am directed to the Symantec website. I can, of course, choose to ignore the warning, but then every page I open states the same full page warning.

Am I the only one getting this warning? Anyone have any suggestions?


Bruce R
NZDN

[toprob]

The site I use to check these things reports NZFF as 'clean'. Personally I find Norton a bit over-zealous, their forum even warns you when you click on an external link from their forum -- this is kinda undermining what hyperlinks are meant to do.

On the other hand, it's been a long time since I had Norton on my system, so if it works well for you, then at some point you need to decide whether to live by it's warnings, or give it a miss.

[jpreou]

I won't comment on newer versions of Symantec but being in IT over 18 years now I can say I stopped using and recommending it both in personal and enterprise quite some years ago and I've seen / heard no reason to change that stance. FWIW this site is not pegged for me as unsafe either from home (Trend) or work (MS Forefront).

[toprob]

I guess it's like any company or organisation -- or government, for that matter -- which needs to convince their customers/members/citizens that they are getting value for what they pay for protection -- sometimes you need to create new threats to keep people buying. There are so many great free solutions these days that they need to be seen to be doing a good job.

[BruceR]

It's starting to really annoy me. I can't go anywhere in the site without a full page warning. It doesn't come from my own Norton but coming from the main Symantec site. The threat name is called SWBPL and its location is -simplyho. There doesn't appear to be anywhere where I can click to treat it as a non-threat.

Any ideas would be welcome. If the worst came to the worst I may have to contact Symantec.


Bruce R
NZDN

[toprob]

Funnily enough, Norton's own online site-checker reports this:


Computer Threats: 0
Identity Threats: 0
Annoyance factors: 1

...so yeah, I guess that this is classified as an annoyance:)

Have you tried a different browser? Can you switch Norton off temporarily when browsing here?

[Fozzer]

"Norton".

I can remember having that awful program installed on my computer zillions of years ago.... ...!

It drove me mad with constant requests to give them loadsa money to retain security.

It was designed to be impossible to uninstall, and I remember I had to actually format my Hard Drive to remove all traces of it completely......

...never again!.... ...!

I use a freeware combination of: AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot Search and Destroy, and run them every day, to keep me safe from any nasties....

...and take very great care what I click on!

Norton often gets dumped on you, unaware, if, and when, you install another program!

The only virus I get, is a bit of a stuffy nose, now and again!... ...!

Paul....pass the handkerchief... ...!

[hoki1185]

I.m running Norton and it never reacts to this site.

[BruceR]

After getting extremely frustrated with getting the big red cross and "Dangerous Website Block" I contacted Norton today. I had a conversation with a rep. He ended up taking over my computer and doing his thing. While he had control he appeared to fix the problem. However, as soon as he closed up shop and left, the problem came back again. I then got a different rep. He also took control. In the end he said he couldn't fix it. Here's part of our conversation, bare in mind he's talking about NZFF.org;

12:01 p.m. Sumit Yadav: Bruce, Norton decided this site as a threat on the feedback of people as Norton decides a website as threat on the community basis.
12:02 p.m. Sumit Yadav: If you think this website is not a threat, you can access it by clicking on visit anyway.
12:02 p.m. Bruce Ross: how do I prevent this warning appearing?
12:03 p.m. Bruce Ross: The trouble with visiting it I have to accept every page I open. It's not just a once thing. Every click I make the warning comes up. Its a real pain. As I said no one else on the forum gets this message. Its only me.
12:06 p.m. Sumit Yadav: I would really like to help you with that but it is not possible to remove that warning as Norton suspect threat on that website or community submitted that this site is malecious.
12:06 p.m. Sumit Yadav: Please accept my apologies for the inconvniece caused.
12:06 p.m. Bruce Ross: Thanks for your help anyway
12:07 p.m. Sumit Yadav: Thank you, Bruce.
12:07 p.m. Sumit Yadav: I am really sorry.
12:07 p.m. Sumit Yadav: You will receive a customer satisfaction survey by email within the next few days. Please feel free to use the comment box to express your overall opinion about Norton Support. Your participation is much appreciated since it helps us continue to improve.
12:07 p.m. Sumit Yadav: It was a pleasure to help you, thank you spending your precious time with us and for using Norton products, have a great day!

I just wonder how many other visitors to NZFF get this threat and don't go further. There is a place for site owners to go to Norton and explain their site is not a threat and have it removed. Would that be possible for this site owner to do that?

Frustrated

Bruce R

[jpreou]

I haven't used Norton for many years, but in almost every AV program there is a way to "whitelist" a known good site.
I'd be surprised if Norton didn't also have this feature.
I'd also question Norton's response that "user feedback" caused the site to be blacklisted.
Really? Enough real people have visited NZFF and decided to report it as malicious? I highly doubt it.
Sorry I can't help you directly, but I'd suggest you do a search on "Norton" and "whitelist" or "website exception".
If you tell us *exactly* what version of Norton you have installed, maybe someone here can help out.

[BruceR]

I've got Norton 360 installed; the latest version. It's probably the most common Norton anti-virus program. The odd thing about it is, it just started this year. I've had Norton ever since I've had a computer, which is quite a few years, and I've been visiting NZFF for a long time.


Bruce R

[jpreou]

I did a Google search on this...
norton 360 website whitelist exception

...and found this...

http://www.ehow.com/how_6081307_do-unbl ... -360_.html

Maybe try it...

[BruceR]

Thanks for that Jeff. I have tried it but the instructions differ from what I have on screen. I must have spent a couple of hours stuffing around trying to achieve what the instructions said but wasn't able to do it. It's really annoying that two reps from Symantec couldn't help. There must be some simple way for me to allow this site through Norton. It's different from my own Norton anti-virus popping up with a virus warning and being able to 'allow' it. The NZFF dangerous website warning I get is a whole page warning with it's own web address. To get on to this topic I had to 'allow' four warnings. I'll keep trying but if I have no success I can always use my iPad for this forum.

Regards

Bruce R

[BruceR]

I had a phone call from a Symantec supervisor about 30 minutes ago. He asked if I was happy with the service provided the other day. I told him I wasn't. He then put me on hold and spoke to the rep who last dealt with me. To cut a long story short the rep took over my computer again and after a while stuffing around said I had my security settings too high. He turned them down and I now don't get the "Dangerous Website Block" warning.

That's good news. One thing I find strange is I have been looking at this forum virtually daily without a problem until the start of this year when the warnings started. I've never touched the settings since the day Norton was installed. Anyway, it's been fixed now .............

Bruce R

[Radar88]

Hi Bruce

This is a Norton Safe Web issue

It would be recommended that the nzff.org.nz Administrators need to take action on behalf of the wider nzff.org community here.

Administrators should visit https://safeweb.norton.com

To register a rating for nzff.org.nz as the Owners of the website.

So that nzff.org website does not register an Annoyance factor 1

I've experience the same issues.

I'm using Windows 10 with Norton 360 install and my preferred Web Browser Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox has an Add-on extension for Norton Identity Safe that was updated by Norton 17 January 2016.

I've not had any issues when access nzff.org.nz when using the other Windows 10 Edge Web Browser.

So it's likely to be to do with the type of Web Browser being used and it's Plugin extension security settings that is causing the issue rather than the Norton 360 product itself.

[BruceR]

Are there any site administrators out there?? This is what I've said in a previous post and what Radar88 has also said. It would be advantageous for the site to have this warning removed.

I just wonder how many other visitors to NZFF get this threat and don't go further. There is a place for site owners to go to Norton and explain their site is not a threat and have it removed. Would that be possible for this site owner to do that?

This is a Norton Safe Web issue

It would be recommended that the nzff.org.nz Administrators need to take action on behalf of the wider nzff.org community here.

Administrators should visit https://safeweb.norton.com

To register a rating for nzff.org.nz as the Owners of the website.

So that nzff.org website does not register an Annoyance factor 1

I've experience the same issues.

Bruce R

[dbcunnz]

Norton is the only antivirus program that flags this problem and flags it as a very minor problem.
Threats found: 1 "Threat Report small-caution SWBPL"
I have done a very extensive search and found that Norton was the only one treating it as a threat.
I found out many years ago that Norton flagged many things as threats when no other virus program did and found it to be a very annoying anti virus program so dumped it over 10 years ago as there are plenty of other antivirus programs some even free one that are far better than Norton.
But in the meantime the admin are looking into Norton to see if we can fix their problem as I don't think it is ours if it was our problem then other antivirus programs would flag it.

[Flying Kiwi]

I'm a Norton 360 user, and I'm having this exact same problem. So you're not alone anymore, Bruce!

I've encountered this problem with a couple of other sites (including Just Flight). What I've done is submit a "false positive" report to Symantec. Use this form for that:

https://submit.symantec.com/false_positive/

Filing a "false positive" report has worked for me before. It worked with the Just Flight site, for instance. I'll file one now, but I recommend you do likewise, Bruce. The more people jumping on this, the quicker the issue should be resolved once and for all!

[BruceR]

I was surprised more people didn't come forward as you did. I can't look into it tonight and I'm flying out first thing tomorrow morning. I'll be back in 10 days. I'll check this topic with interest then, and if necessary, submit a report.


Bruce R

[BruceR]

I started this topic back in Jan 2016 because my Norton antivirus was blocking these forums. It was claiming it was a "Dangerous site". I see others also had the same problem. During the conversations/replies I flew out of NZ for a holiday in Australia, and when I returned, oddly enough I was able to get back into the forums without Norton blocking my way. Well, that was until last week. Out of the blue Norton once again began blocking this site as a "dangerous site". The only way I could get into these forums was using the i-pad rather than my PC. This time I went into Norton and filled out an online form presenting a case that the NZFS forum was not a threat. Here's their reply;

"Based on your recommendation and after careful evaluation of the Web content submitted, a Web Content Analyst has recategorized this URL as Newsgroups/Forums and Sports/Recreation.

Thank you,

Symantec WebFilter
site.review@broadcom.com"

Hopefully Norton won't bother us again

Bruce R