Networking issues, Norton Firewall

This information came from one of our customers struggling with internet and networking functionality in Campground Master:

I thought I would let you know how I resolved my problems getting the networking working and also the problem with sending email confirmations.

Both issues were caused by my Norton Antivirus/Firewall software. It seems that Norton will scan your outgoing emails as well as incoming emails. The scanning of outgoing emails is incompatible with Campground Master (if the modem disconnects after sending the email).  I had to turn that feature off. Also, on my master computer, I had Norton Personal Firewall running which made setting up the network aggravating.  Even when I got the network going, the emails still wouldn't work from the master computer. I ended up removing the Firewall program and letting Windows XP do its firewall thing.

Our response:

The XP firewall and various "security" programs have been giving people all kinds of problems with networking (blocking the TCP/IP port of Campground Master), but we hadn't heard of it being a problem with sending E-mail.

Personally I've heard a lot of negative things about Norton software for several years now, and McAffee isn't much better.  They try to do so much to "protect" you that it causes headaches in all but the most simple cases.  Now AOL and MSN are adding their own "security" software to systems causing even more headaches.  

We use ZoneAlarm for the firewall and AVG anti-virus, in addition to running 4 different spyware scanners weekly.  This routine maintenance, plus avoiding Microsoft's Outlook E-mail program (a major security leak in itself) and of course never opening an unknown E-mail attachment, has kept our systems clean.  We recommend that everyone do the same.