symantec-logo I recently removed the Network Threat Protection component from the Symantec Endpoint Protection installation on all of the servers and desktops on a customer network.  Here is a list of things that happened as a result:

  • Backup throughput increased by 50% (using Symantec Backup Exec 11d)
  • Exchange backups stopped failing due to the remote agent becoming disconnected
  • Performance of SQL-based applications improved
  • Group Policy processing time at desktop startup decreased
  • LDAP search query times for the Exchange server improved (System Center Essentials was raising alarms for these taking over 6000ms sustained for 5 minutes, with the alarm threshold being 100ms)
  • RPC latency for the Exchange server improved (SCE was raising alarms for average latency being over 70ms sustained for 5 minutes)
  • Office applications opening files on network shares became more responsive
  • Desktops stopped rebooting randomly throughout the day

Seriously, what a piece of junk.

About the Author

Paul Cunningham

Paul is a former Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works as a consultant, writer, and trainer specializing in Office 365 and Exchange Server. Paul no longer writes for Practical365.com.

Comments

  1. sep

    symantec is a piece of shit.
    there is a one liner powershell script that will blow away ANY SEP agent – it is worth its weight in gold

  2. Surti

    I am also having serious network performance problems with SEP. Even the latest version (12.1.4) is problematic.

  3. Matthew McDonald

    Still having many of these issues with SEP NTP today. I recently found it when doing iperf network tests and found NTP is killing my network throughput by at least 25%.

  4. Diego Arias

    Symantec End Point protection its a piece of junk, Block Transport service because its a network threat and a lot of other weird stuff. Sometimes removing it from the server without trashing it its impossible. if your time costs nothing use it, will give you a really hard time and of course the log doesnt says anything. Use something else and take your life back.

  5. Dutchy

    I removed every single Symantec product from my networks after going through the Endpoint issues some months back, and moved to alternatives, for AV, Backups, remote management etc. Have never looked back, sorry Symantec but really quite glad to e rid of you.

  6. Jacob Dybala

    I too believed at first that since it’s a Symantec product, it was worth using. What a waste.

  7. Nizam Mohamed

    As a follow up: I installed a brand new Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Update Rollup 5 and did a swing migration of all mailboxes, not to mention domain mail routing settings, etc., etc., etc.

    Not fun.

  8. Nizam Mohamed

    I totally agree. What a piece of junk. I’ve now spent about 3 weeks trying to bring my precious exchange server back to the pre-symantec state after installing the complete SEP. I first noticed exclamation marks on network devices and the forever haunting teefer2.sys. Uninstalling via control panel was unusuccessful and after many attemps, I used symantec’s manual removal instructions (http://www.nizmotek.com/blog/completely-uninstalling-symantec-endpoint-protection-the-manual-way/). I still cannot use the Exchange Management Console. I am actually dreading doing a complete new build and install and do a swing migration for all my mailboxes.

    What a piece of junk!

  9. zomess

    Make sure to disable windows fire wall after uninstall the network threat protection feature and try agin may be help

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