Welcome to the new Symantec Connect
Created: 08 Sep 2010 | Updated: 05 Dec 2010 | 119 comments
As mentioned earlier, we've been hard at work on a redesigned Symantec Connect. You are now looking at the finished product. We had four main goals for this new design:
- Simplify navigation
- Improve search
- Clean up distractions
- Help new users understand how the site works
Along the way we fixed dozens of bugs and make other smaller enhancements. As always, this isn't the end of the road - we continue to make adjustments to Connect every week based on your feedback. The video below will give you a quick overview of what's new. We hope you like it.
.peter
Blog Entry Filed Under:
About Symantec Connect Blog
Stay up-to-date with the latest developments on the Symantec Connect website. The team of moderators and administrators post here regularly about upcoming features, tips, and anything else that relates to the Connect website. Filter by:
Blog Tags
Symantec Connect Features General Symantec Basics Endpoint Protection (AntiVirus) North America Emerging Threats Help Tip/How to help topics translation machine translation United Way demo contest rewards recordings screencast Video newsletter Best Practice Redesign User Groups Search Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition 12.x
Comments 119 Comments • Jump to latest comment
Hi peter,
It says at the top of this page that it will no longer support IE 6?
What if we are still using IE 5 or 6..? how is that?
Cheers!
"Those who Appreciate Quality Enjoy it Responsibly"
---------------:)---------------------------
We no longer support all Connect features with IE6, but we allow users to generally browse content with IE6 (only a tiny fraction of Connect users still use that version).
To experience all features I'd recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version of Internet Explorer or Chrome, Safari or Firefox.
IE 5 is almost out of the web now. A small percentage of people are still using IE6, but it has lots of vulnerabilities. I do not know, why people continue using it.
No offense please.
PC Security
guess it's something I'll have to get used to
not sure if I like the "new look"
will restore -- where there is a Will there is a way
Great guys!
Nice work!
Flávio Junio Martins da Silva
Consultor de Pré-vendas
SOFTCORP - Nova Lima/MG
great job guys. Keep up the good works
Brian M Brotschi, CISSP
Director - Global Consulting Services Enablement
Symantec Services Group
The new version is simpler and easy to browse..
Vikram Kumar
Symantec Consultant
The most helpful part of entire Symantec connect is the Search button..do use it.
Any improvements in performance or just looks? I think once I get used to it, it looks better.
Thanks.
If you find this post helpful please give it a thumbs up!
If you find that this solves your problem please mark it as the solution!
The new theme does introduce performance improvements. But it will take us a few days to remove the old theme from the server before you see all the speed improvements.
Too bad the site is still sloooooooow. (no, it's not my computer or connection).
Still don't understand why the whole site is using SSL.
I've gotten used to surfing the site without being logged in (much faster)
it's because your ISP is throttling your connection
because they think you're using SSL to torrent for illegal file sharing etc.
and because SSL is encrypted communication,
they (your ISP) can't peek at the packets to verify that you're just using a forum
One thing which i have noticed is that when ever i tried to write a BLOG or ARTICLE my contents always went here and there, means i was not able to manage the alligment of my snaps or BOLD/UNDERLINE words did not seems properly.
Now in new forum i am happy because it is fixed i think :)
Any comment will be appreciated. Mark as Solution if your query is resolved
__________________
Thanks in Advance
Zahid Haseeb
zahidhaseeb.wordpress.com
And another thing that still behaves the same way...
Do a search on the forums, click on a link, try to go back to the search results page, most likely you will get "Webpage has expired" and have to start the search all over again.
annoying...
use tabs,
open links on the search results in a new tab
by either method:
a> middle click on the link to open in a new tab (that's press the wheel down to make a click)
b> right click on a search result link and select open link in new tab
I've always done it this way on eveything from Google search results to forum use
and have had no problems with login authentication passing between the tabs.
keep getting JS errors:
Webpage error details
Line: 874
Char: 9
Code: 0
URI: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/sites/default/files/js/js_b695856bc66a0d48ae24bf84609ac58d.js
The Endpoint Protection (AntiVirus) Forum still comes up with the old theme when using Chrome.
The Endpoint Encryption forum is just plain "broken" when using Chrome.
I'm sure there are others...
You are probably seeing those issues when unauthenticated. Users that are not logged in get a cached view of the site to improve performance. It will take a few hours for all the servers around the world to clear their cache of the old pages. That includes the JS error.
If you see those issues when you are logged in let me know.
I just did some browsing as an unauthenticated user and all the pages I hit rendered correctly.
It looks like the caching servers are picking up (and laying down) the new theme.
kevin, it was not that easy for me ...but i made my way slowly and was 90% there . :)
This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
Hi I like it a lot, and the search feature with the default context reuse for quicker targeting, is good.
I still hope an "exclusion" box instead of "include only", because when try reducing the search list, I often never know with sure if I should scope using "tag1", or "tag2". But I am really sure it is not "tag3", so I would like to be able to "except this tag" feature.
As propose: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/idea/kb-se...
But I see now we are able to include more than "one" tag in our scope, it is a good thing also. I can select "tag1" plus "tag2". But the except "tag3" can still help the scope reducing. Thanks to think about for next improvement.
Good job. (hope the next KB for Altiris will be also efficient in search options, that's the main feature importance, pertinence & reducing result list :)
~Pascal @ Kotte.net~ Do you speak French? Et utilisez Altiris: venez nous rejoindre sur le GUASF
Hello Peter,
The new look is great, I am getting an error while uploading an article. After selecting the product still getting the error. Please find the screenshot....
Its a best practice to have a "Support Contract" with Symantec...
I'm not able to replicate this error. Can you try posting again and let me know what community/product you are choosing?
I logged off and logged in back....it started working...
Its a best practice to have a "Support Contract" with Symantec...
Still happening for me. Backup / Archive BESR 2010
Hello Peter,
I get the same error when trying to add a new entry in the Netbackup forum. The problem is I cannot select the NetBackup version...
Selecting | Create Content | Forum Discussion |
The same. Logged off. Than back on - solved the issue
STS: DLP and Storage Foundation for Windows
If this post was helpful please vote +1
If this post was useless or just for points please vote -1
still gives the dialog:
"You have requested an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information.
Information that you see on this page could easily be read by a third party."
this problem started with the last format change
Thanks Richard,
It looks like our video server is handing us content via HTTP.
Since Connect's pages (per Symantec policy) are encrypted, the mix of HTTP and HTTPS are showing these alerts.
We're working to see if we can get the videos served to us via HTTPS which should resolve the issue.
Kevin
Hello Admins,
Why did you removed the "Vagon Wheele"?
Its a best practice to have a "Support Contract" with Symantec...
nice UI, good work.
But i still feel that there should be 1 more enhancement required. a feature to star a particular thread. it may a forum/idea/etc...
the subscription methord is through emails, but what if i want to check some info which i am accessing from a different machine.
It may be starred question or in other words favourites. :)
~ SQA Manual - Crafting tomorrow
If a forum post solves your problem, please flag it as a solution. If you like an article or blog post vote for it.
That's on our list of future enhancements. Stay tuned.
A better UI. Like the new one.
Now it is became much simpler.Nice work.Previously we used to see may threads are getting posted in wrong forms.I think now it will get reduced....
Please don't forget to mark your thread solved with whatever answer helped you : ) Thanks & Regards Aravind
Glad to see it's been released into the wild!
Tried going back to the old theme just to see - no thanks!
Great work guys.
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
It looks good.. Hope the speed improvements are going to be noticable.
Many Thanks,
Rob
www.quadrotech-it.com - All your EV Tools
PS I hope that the post proves helpful.
it look good ........................
Thanks & Regards
Vinod N.Shinde
Netbackup Technical Executive
*****************************************************************
I've already sent some positive comments during beta preview, just another nice feature that I forgot to mention is about Share menu. Now is possible to email an interesting article. I think I will use this feature a lot, also in the Social Networks websites there is the Google Buzz option. For a test I tried to publish something with the Google Buzz is turned off, and the nice result is my shared item it was published on Google Shared items.
Paolo
A quick test , new template compatible with browsers : Internet Explorer , Google Chrome, Safari , Firefox and also Opera.
I can't post content in the forum for Backup Exec; the site rejects it and tells me to select at least one product despite me selecting Backup Exec -> 2010
Scott - can you post a few more details about the error? I can't seem to replicate this. Let us know which page you were on when you clicked the "create forum discussion" button and any steps you followed so we can replicate it.
Forgive my delay in response; I just attempted it once again (Create Content -> Forum Discussion [In the Backup and Archiving Community]) and the portal now responds to my posts and option selections so I believe it was just a bug that resolved over night. Perhaps it was on my system, I'm not sure but it seems to be gone. Thanks for at least looking into it.
Dear Peter,
Problem: I am getting a danger (skull/crossed bones) icons as a Favicon as illustrated in the attachment. Not sure if the favicon is indicative of restricted user permissions or something like a missing plugin.
Can you help clarify on the same please?
About Browser: I am using Google Chrome. The browser version is hereunder: 6.0.472.55.
Screenshot
Hi Deepak,
The red skull and crossbones is the way Google Chrome has chosen to tell you there is unencrypted content on the page. On this page, for example, the video stream is unencrypted.
Hope this helps.
Kevin
Dear Kevin,
In fact I was presuming in the same way. However if you watch other websites like blogger.com I see the following (padlock with a cross on it). For non-SSL websites, I see a globe. Only for Symantec and Airtel Call Home I see this danger icon. At the outset it is scaring me whether I am on a phishing website.
Half-Secure Illustration: http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/5101f1c11c4031fca8bf86b9201686576g.jpg
I have some entries that
Have a dot and are dark blue
have a dot and are light blue
have NO dot and light blue
have NO dot and are dark blue
(but seeing the difference between the light blue and the dark blue is a little difficult - they are so close together in hue)
I don't have to know how to spell....I work on Unix.
NetBackup 7.0.1 - AIX & Windows
The dot signifies whether there are new comments since your last visit to that thread.
The light blue color shows that you have never visited that page before, while the dark blue signifies that you have visited the page. We will work to make those two colors more differentiated.
Great work guys!!!
looks great and supports all browsers...
-- Deepak W (Kindly close the thread if your query is resolved)
Now I am facing one problem.Some times even I had read the thread and after that there is no new update still it is telling me a new update is present (Blue dot is appearing).I am using Opera 10.62 for browsing.Any body else facing this problem?.This problem will come for random threads for random times.Some times one refresh will solve problem with some thread and start giving problem with other.Some times there will not be any change after refresh also.
Please don't forget to mark your thread solved with whatever answer helped you : ) Thanks & Regards Aravind
It has only just started happening. They do clear eventually, but that's not the point!
***EDIT***
Firefox.
***EDIT #2***
It's actually not just the blue dots, altho' they are the most visible representation. The whole forum page is not updating. Just went into a "blue-dotted" post & added a comment. Went back to the forum page & blue-dot still there & reply count not updated.
***EDIT #3***
& now all the blue dots have re-appeared! It's as if the morning's starting all over again - Groundhog Day?
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
In our continuing quest to improve performance we started caching the forum list pages every 5 minutes. I would suspect this is causing the behavior you are seeing. The cache of what threads you have viewed only gets rebuilt every 5 minutes, not immediately.
This is a temporary change until we refactor those forum list pages using a new query. If this is causing too much grief we can go back to the way it was before and live with the performance degradation until we get the new query done.
& that it's going to be attended to then I can live with it as it currently is. They do go eventually afterall!
Cheers Peter.
Any update on the "Groupes" issue I was seeing which is still manifesting itself every now & again?
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sor...
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Hey Andy,
Next time you see "Groupes" can you post the URL of the page where you're seeing this?
Hopefully the URL will help us decipher why the spelling has changed.
Thanks,
Kevin
I also note are there: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/zh-hans/us...
i.e. NavBar drop down doesn't drop down - stays at ALL Communities/Overview (this is when I'm areas within My Account e.g. activity, track etc) and my recent activity under "track" is not showing recent posts.
***EDIT*** (for the umpteenth time!)
Tried to insert a picture here to demonstrate what I'm seeing, but I can no longer get it to fit the page!!
((Don't like the way each reply gets less & less window to work with! 
))
***FINAL EDIT*** (I hope)
Now that it's working again the URL is: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/user/30831...
so where has the zh-hans entry come from in the original? I have noticed that I have pasted a few URLs a short time ago into other posts that also contain this "path"
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Thanks Andy,
The zh-hans portion of the URL means that somewhere in your travels you've clicked on a link or read a post that someone has tagged as being in Simplified Chinese. If the interface were translated, it would be obvious that you had wondered into this part of town so you could remedy the issue immediately. But, alas, this part of the interface translation is not slated for anytime soon. (We do plan to unveil a Connect UI in German, French, and Spanish in the near future.)
It's good to know that the community selector doesn't work when you're browsing the site in another "language". I'll have the devs look into that.
Finally, you can now attach images (and other files) to comments using the "File attachments" link below the "Submit your comment" form. (The File attachments tool automatically resizes the image to a thumbnail size and links to the original image).
Kevin
Wondered where I was going wrong with the pictures!
"you've clicked on a link or read a post that someone has tagged as being in Simplified Chinese" - I wonder if it's from any of the 'spam' posts I've been deleting/marking as offensive?
***EDIT***
Found one of the "culprits". Tried to retrace my steps from earlier today & found the following genuine post which added an "fr" to my subsequent paths resulting in the same symptoms (just need to find the zh-hans one now for my peace of mind...):
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/fr/forums/...
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Thanks.
Why are you forcing me to use double-line spacing? When I press Enter, I want ONE carriage-return, not two.
Most multi-line text controls allow you to use Shift+Enter if you want a single carriage-return. This one SEEMS to do that, until you start entering text: the cursor is on then correct line but the insertion point remains where it was, next to the last text character!
Again, I ask, does anyone actually *test* this stuff? I mean, properly test it?
Don't know why 'x' happened? Want to know why 'y' happened? Use ProcMon and it will tell you.
Think about using http://www.google.com before posting.
Testing ...
testing ...
1-2-3 ...
Shift+Enter works for me.
What browser are you using?
I cannot get it to go to 50 times per page today.
I start at 20, I choose 50, page refreshes to 20.
I don't have to know how to spell....I work on Unix.
NetBackup 7.0.1 - AIX & Windows
once I put in the above entry and went back to the forum it was showing 50 items.
I don't have to know how to spell....I work on Unix.
NetBackup 7.0.1 - AIX & Windows
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/bug...
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Hi!
and Symantec Connect supports Google Chrome?????
Does that count!
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Just to confirm that this new template works on Chrome and Opera browsers
Hi,
May I know how to post question in forums? Previously there is an option to post questions, but now I cannot find it anywhere.
Endpoint management-> Wise Installation Development.
How do I post question? Thanks.
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
I am tryign to find out how to get to a KB article that I know the number of . Normally I can just search for it and it will come up in the results.
Whats the best way of going about it with the new interface?
ie. https://kb.altiris.com/display/1/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=51930&r=6.817263E-02
takes me nowhere anymore and i can't find article 51930
So links in all the old posts will take everyone to the new SymWise front page.
Clay
Like AltirisJunkie, I'm looking for an Altiris KB article for which I not only have the KB number, but also the entire title: "AKB 21065 How can you copy processed NSEs into a separate folder on the Notification Server".
Searches for segments of the title like "processed NSEs" are finding no results. The KB number is not working either. Has all of the Altiris KB content been transferred to this tool and if so, are the KB numbers part of that content?
Doug Morrison
ACE, ACC
All of my bookmarks and all forum links to Altiris KB articles are no longer working and like mentioned above I am unable to find them via a search. We need to get this content loaded immediately. There are support articles on there that I need to solve some issues I'm having with NS. Since this is not working do we get free calls to support to have them send us the information?
Other than that I like the new look. Would be nice for the back button to take you back to the search page instead of a black page and have to start the search again. We shouldn't have to open in a new tab.
Thanks,
robertser,
All former Altiris article URLs should provide you with a URL to the content on SymWISE. What articles are you having difficulty finding? Have you tried searching for them in SymWISE via keyword search (searching by Altiris Article ID will not work).
Stephanie
Hi Doug,
You can find former AKB 21065 here: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO2908.
Like I already mentioned, you will not be able search by Altiris Article ID in the new system. We do have redirectors set up for all article pages that will provide the URL (like above) for the content in the new system.
I understand that you were having difficulties searching for your article. Here are some tips that I have found have made my searches more successful:
I hope this information helps!
Stephanie
Hi Clay,
Unfortuantely in the new SymWISE interface you can not search by Altiris KB number. The article that you are looking for can be found at http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH122326. Notice that the new ID is TECH122326. You WILL be able to find this article by searching for the new Doc ID.
Can you tell me how you got to the link that you listed above? We have redirectors in place for all of the Altiris KB articles, so if you navigate to the old KB article a link like I provided above is listed. I want to make sure that the redirector for this URL is appropriate, since it is simply sending you to the homepage.
We are really excited about the new system. Please continue to provide us feedback on this new system so we can make the best user experience possible!
Thanks!
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
If you go to this article http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/altiris-e... you'll find numerous links to Altiris KB articles (all labled in the tables.) If you click on any of those links, instead of being redirected to the corresponding SymWISE page you are taken to the AKB splash page containing a link to the SymWISE page, where a user would have to start his search all over again.
Thanks,
Cheryl
Endpoint Management,
Endpoint Virtualization
Community Manager
www.twitter.com/EMnV_symc
Need Altiris help? IRC chat #Altiris
Thanks for the clarification Cheryl! I'll work to resolve this issue and with post an update on this thread when I know more!
tnx for the answer
Thanks Andy.
You still have work to do, but in the middle it looks better than the older one.
Great job.
If this post was helpful, please take a second to vote or mark as solution.
This one is definetely better. I loved it.
Thanks for all the efforts!
Best regards,
Bekir Burak Durmaz
There is a little problem with the new forums (only tried with Chrome)
Even after refreshing the page it shows old data.
For eg. If I refresh the Main page it will show 0 comment.
When it open the thread it might show 1-2 comment 2-3 minutes old.
May be its just me..or may be it is a problem..not sure
Vikram Kumar
Symantec Consultant
The most helpful part of entire Symantec connect is the Search button..do use it.
Hi Vikram--
In order to try and help performance, the "overview" pages are cached. They refresh every 5 minutes or so. As a result, you may not see them update as quickly as the threads update. Hope this helps explain the reason for what you're seeing.
This looks good but tates time to load whole page.
Regards, M.R
still find it hard to navigate on the page.. Maybe I will get use to it. Plus, it takes time to load the page. why is that?
I cannot get it to show 50 to a page no matter how many times it try.
Cannot find posts after I update them.
I just put in more info on one of my questions and now cannot find it at all by looking at the pages.
The color and the dot seem to no longer have any meaning as I cannot tell if I have looked at the last post or have never opened it at all.
I seem to be very confused on the new look and am have a hard time finding what I am looking for.
I don't have to know how to spell....I work on Unix.
NetBackup 7.0.1 - AIX & Windows
The issues you are reporting aren't necessarily related to the redesign. Let me try to shed some light on them:
Connect is still doubling traffic every year, which is putting an enormous burden on our servers. In an effort to improve performance we are now caching the forum pages every five minutes. This means that after you post a forum discussion you may need to wait a maximum of 5 minutes before the post shows up. This also goes for the blue read/unread dots. They get updated every five minutes. It's an inconvenience for sure, but we felt it was worth it to speed up the site. We are working on other ways to improve performance that will eventually allow us to either reduce or eliminate caching on these pages.
As far as showing 50 items on the page, this is a bug that we have a fix in testing.
How does the caching explain the "blue dots" being there, then going, then coming back & then going again?
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Maybe I need new glasses but I haven't seem to be able to find a button on a forum listing page to start a new post.....
And why when I am finished reading a thread I can't immediately get back to the forum listing of posts from where I left off? If I use the back button I have to start on page 1 again, if I click the forum name at the top, again I am on Page 1 again when I viewed the post from page 4.... <sigh> and all I was looking for was a simple answer....
In the old design the button to create new content was in several places which caused some confusion. We have now consolidated the "Create" button to a single place - in the action menu near the top right of your screen. All content can be created from this menu.
Hmmmm. Didn't see my post earlier in this discussion then? Remarkably similar to Peters !
We used to have that paging issue before, didn't realise it was still with us?
Regards Andy
"Have you still got the box it came in?"
Turns out the paging issue *and* the blue dots issue were related to caching of the list pages.
We've disabled caching on these pages and things appear to be back to normal.
Thanks for your patience.
Kevin
Thanks Kevin & Peter
Vikram Kumar
Symantec Consultant
The most helpful part of entire Symantec connect is the Search button..do use it.
Would you like to reply?
Login or Register to post your comment.