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Having trouble with Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Windows Server? You are not alone.

While a reputable product, Symantec anti-virus products seem to have become more troublesome lately (in my opinion).

I have recently seen a few strange examples related to file share problems when Windows Server 2008 has SEP installed. The example I have in mind was set up with a vanilla SEP install.

Windows XP clients would drop connections with the file server – any shares would be inaccessible.  You could ping the server and hit the Internet, but no file shares, which means no group policy, no roaming profiles or redirected folders. Rebooting the server fixed the issue temporarily.

I found a solution by hitting the forums and Symantec’s site.

See Document ID 2008100113145148

They recommend maintenance release 3 (MR3) and 2008 SP 2 be applied.

In my case, I couldn’t apply SP 2, so I used a work-around instead. I disabled auto-protect altogether and set a scheduled scan (daily) instead. This fixed the issue until I can put SP 2 on. Also don’t forget to disable all features but anti-virus on the SEP client (i.e. axe pro-active threat protection and the rest).

If you do some digging, you’ll find there are A LOT of issues with SEP breaking things in general. Security software issues like this are hard to track down and highly disruptive.

Not surprisingly, my recommendations for SEP are few and far between.