Gmail and Norton

[AlanYork]

I've just got Gmail and am very impressed but when I came to read their Help pages I see that, according to Google, sometimes Norton products can strip the text from e mails. Hmmm, as many people use Norton, my contacts included, that's not good news.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Chris W]

Hmm... the only thing i can think of is that norton doesn't show messages that are written in html rather than plain text- hence you could find text missing....

not sure though

[Jon M]

Here's how to create a rule with 2003 Norton products:

1. Open your Norton software.
2. Click 'Options,' and select 'Web Content.'
3. Select 'Add Site,' and enter gmail.google.com.
4. Click the 'User Settings' tab, and uncheck 'Use Ad Blocking settings.'
5. Select 'Permit.'

If you're using 2004 Norton products:

1. Open your Norton software.
2. Highlight 'Ad Blocking,' and select 'Configure.'
3. Click 'Advanced,' then 'Web Contents,' and select 'Add Site.'
4. Enter gmail.google.com.
5. Click the 'User Settings' tab, and uncheck 'Use Ad Blocking settings.'
6. Select 'Permit.'

And for 2005 Norton products:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Go to http://gmail.google.com, and log in to your Gmail account.
3. Click the 'NIS' icon on your browser's toolbar.
4. Uncheck the box next to 'Block pop-ups from this website.'
5. Restart Internet Explorer.

After you've created the rule, clear your browser's cache.

Here's how to clear your cache in Internet Explorer:

1. Click the 'Tools' menu at the top of your browser, and select 'Internet Options.'
2. Click the 'General' tab at the top of the dialog box.
3. Click 'Delete Files' under 'Temporary Internet files.'
4. Select 'Delete all offline content' by checking the box.
5. Click 'OK.'

http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/...8837&topic=133

[AlanYork]

Thanks for that, much appreciated. Thats great but are people going to take all that time and trouble reconfiguring Norton just so their friends can use Gmail????

Hmmmm, I cant see it myself.

[Jon M]

Originally Posted by AlanYork

Thanks for that, much appreciated. Thats great but are people going to take all that time and trouble reconfiguring Norton just so their friends can use Gmail????

Hmmmm, I cant see it myself.

ok
What has your local configuration of Norton got to do with your friends?

None of those changes take more than 20 seconds, I don't think thats too much to ask to be honest.

But then if you expect a PC to function perfectly without any effort you've got a lot more faith in Mr.Gates than I have

[AlanYork]

Maybe I should have made it a little more clear what I was driving at.

My understanding of this is that sometimes Norton strips Gmail of text. So, let's say I send an e mail to my friend and they have Norton installed. Are they likely to want to mess around with their Norton in order to read my emails? After all, how are they going to know what's causing the problem and where to fix it? Also, I won't know if a) they have Norton & b) they got 100% of the content.

Don't get me wrong, Gmail's great, it's much better than hotmail...quite frankly no way should I have to use a non NTL proxy to get my trash to delete in hotmail, and why, when I try to send pics, it tells me I have no pictures in the My Pictures folder is utterly beyond me (if I send pics by selecting " send file" rather than "send a picture" it seems to work ok). Gmail has none of these problems, however.....

Given the choice I'd use Gmail every time, but this Norton thing is surely an issue? Norton is one of the most popular firewall/AVs and if that's removing text from Gmail messages, that to my mind is a major drawback.

If I'm missing something obvious here please say, but if Google want to compete with Hotmail, I think they really need to get this sorted out and quickly. There are many, many people in this world who just want their PC to do the basics when they ask it to, to browse the web, to be able to send and receive emails properly etc. They have neither the time, the desire or the knowlege to start messing around with firewalls et al. Why should they? Hotmail, when it works, as in fairness it usually does, takes care of e mails adequately. When it, and other free emails dont have problems with Norton, what's the incentive to change to Google, which does?

[Jon M]

Not a lot to say really, wouldn't it be nice if software developers conformed to standards and worked together to achieve high levels of compatability between their products.

The best we can do in this situation is highlight the problem both to Norton and Google and hope one or both of them does something about it.
The problem itself could be blamed on either of them, so as end users we're stuck in the middle without a target I'm afraid.