Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1: How to uninstall and remove it completely from your system - SoftwareHow
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12: A Comprehensive Review
In today's digital world, endpoint security is more important than ever. Endpoints are the devices that connect to your network, such as laptops, desktops, servers, mobile phones, tablets, and more. They are also the targets of various cyberattacks, such as malware, ransomware, phishing, denial-of-service, and more. These attacks can compromise your data, disrupt your operations, damage your reputation, and cost you money.
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.
That's why you need a robust endpoint security solution that can protect your endpoints from all kinds of threats. One such solution is Symantec Endpoint Protection 12, a powerful product from Broadcom that offers unrivaled security, blazing performance, and smarter management for your endpoints.
In this article, we will review what Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is, how it works, how to install and use it, how to troubleshoot and uninstall it, and answer some frequently asked questions. By the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of why Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is one of the best endpoint security solutions in the market.
How Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 Works
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is designed to address the challenges of endpoint security with a layered approach that combines multiple technologies in one high-performance agent. It goes beyond traditional antivirus to include firewall, intrusion prevention, device and application control, behavioral analysis, reputation analysis, and more. It leverages the world's largest civilian threat intelligence network, Symantec Global Intelligence Network, to provide real-time protection against emerging and sophisticated threats. It also optimizes the performance of your endpoints by reducing the resource consumption and network bandwidth usage of the security agent. It also simplifies the management of your endpoint security by providing a single console, granular policy settings, system lockdown, remote deployment, and more.
Unrivaled Security
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 delivers unrivaled security for your endpoints by using multiple technologies to detect and prevent various types of attacks. Some of these technologies are:
Insight: This is a cloud-based reputation analysis technology that evaluates the trustworthiness of files and processes based on their prevalence, age, origin, and other factors. It can identify and block malicious files and processes before they execute on your endpoints, reducing the risk of infection and false positives.
SONAR: This is a behavioral analysis technology that monitors the activity of files and processes on your endpoints and detects any suspicious or malicious behavior. It can block zero-day threats, ransomware, fileless malware, and other advanced attacks that evade traditional antivirus signatures.
Network Threat Protection: This is a firewall and intrusion prevention technology that monitors the network traffic on your endpoints and blocks any malicious or unauthorized packets. It can prevent denial-of-service attacks, port scans, buffer overflows, and other network-based attacks that target your endpoints.
These technologies work together to provide a comprehensive and proactive protection for your endpoints against targeted attacks and advanced persistent threats.
Blazing Performance
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 delivers blazing performance for your endpoints by using multiple technologies to optimize the resource consumption and network bandwidth usage of the security agent. Some of these technologies are:
Insight: As mentioned earlier, this technology reduces the scan overhead by only scanning files that are unknown or suspicious, rather than scanning every file on your endpoints. It also reduces the client size by only downloading the necessary definitions from the cloud, rather than downloading the entire signature database.
Flexible Control Options: This technology allows you to customize the security settings for your endpoints based on their location, role, function, or user. You can choose from different levels of protection, such as high security, low security, or custom security. You can also configure different scan modes, such as full scan, quick scan, or random scan. You can also schedule scans to run at specific times or intervals.
These technologies work together to provide a high-performance and low-impact security for your endpoints without compromising their productivity or performance.
Smarter Management
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 delivers smarter management for your endpoint security by providing multiple features to simplify and streamline the administration of your security policies and tasks. Some of these features are:
Single Management Console: This is a web-based interface that allows you to manage all aspects of your endpoint security from one place. You can view the status of your endpoints, create and apply policies, run reports, perform actions, and more.
Granular Policy Settings: This feature allows you to create and apply policies that suit your specific needs and preferences. You can define policies for different groups of endpoints based on their location, role, function, or user. You can also define policies for different aspects of security, such as antivirus, firewall, intrusion prevention, device control, application control, system lockdown, and more.
System Lockdown: This feature allows you to lock down your endpoints to prevent unauthorized changes or installations. You can choose from two modes: whitelist mode or blacklist mode. In whitelist mode, only the applications that are approved by you can run on your endpoints. In blacklist mode, only the applications that are blocked by you cannot run on your endpoints.
Application and Device Control: This feature allows you to control the use of applications and devices on your endpoints. You can block or allow specific applications or devices based on their name, hash, signature, or vendor. You can also block or allow specific actions, such as copying, deleting, modifying, or executing files or processes.
Remote Deployment: This feature allows you to deploy Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 to your endpoints remotely using the management console. You can choose from different methods, such as push deployment, pull deployment, or silent deployment. You can also monitor the progress and status of the deployment tasks.
These features work together to provide a smarter and easier management for your endpoint security without requiring a lot of time or effort.
How to Install and Use Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is easy to install and use on your endpoints. It supports both Windows and Linux operating systems, and it can be installed using the installation wizard or the command line. It can also be configured using the management console, the client interface, or the command line. It can also be updated using LiveUpdate or manual methods. Here are the steps to install and use Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 on your endpoints:
Downloading Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
The first step to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is to download it from the Broadcom Support Portal. You can download it for free if you have a valid support contract with Broadcom, or you can purchase a license if you don't have one. Here are the steps to download Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 from the Broadcom Support Portal:
Go to https://support.broadcom.com/ and log in with your credentials.
Click on Download Software and select Symantec Endpoint Protection from the product list.
Select the version you want to download, which is 12.1 RU6 MP10 as of June 2023.
Select the language you want to download, which is English by default.
Select the platform you want to download, which is either Windows or Linux.
Select the file you want to download, which is either Symantec_Endpoint_Protection_12.1.6_MP10_Win64-bit_Client_EN.exe for Windows or Symantec_Endpoint_Protection_12.1.6_MP10_Linux_Client_EN.tar.gz for Linux.
Click on Download Selected Files and save the file to your preferred location.
Installing Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
The next step to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is to run the installer file that you downloaded from the Broadcom Support Portal. You can run it using the installation wizard or the command line. Here are the steps to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using the installation wizard:
Double-click on the installer file that you downloaded from the Broadcom Support Portal.
If prompted by User Account Control, click on Yes.
If prompted by Windows Defender SmartScreen, click on Run anyway.
The installation wizard will start and display the welcome screen. Click on Next.
The license agreement screen will appear. Read the license agreement and select I accept the terms in the license agreement. Click on Next.
The installation type screen will appear. Select Typical Installation. Click on Next.
The ready to install screen will appear. Click on Install.
The installation progress screen will appear. Wait for the installation to complete.
The installation completed screen will appear. Click on Finish.
The Symantec Endpoint Protection client interface will open and display the status of your endpoint security.
If you want to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using the command line, you can use the following syntax:
Symantec_Endpoint_Protection_12.1.6_MP10_Win64-bit_Client_EN.exe /s /v"/qn RUNLIVEUPDATE=0 REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS"
This command will install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 silently without running LiveUpdate or rebooting your endpoint.
Configuring Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
The final step to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 is to configure it according to your needs and preferences. You can configure Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using the management console, the client interface, or the command line. Here are some of the common configuration tasks that you can perform with Symantec Endpoint Protection 12:
Creating and applying policies: Policies are the rules that define how Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 protects your endpoints. You can create and apply policies for different aspects of security, such as antivirus, firewall, intrusion prevention, device control, application control, system lockdown, and more. You can also create and apply policies for different groups of endpoints based on their location, role, function, or user. You can use the management console to create and apply policies using a graphical interface, or you can use the command line to create and apply policies using XML files.
Running scans: Scans are the processes that Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 uses to detect and remove threats from your endpoints. You can run scans manually or automatically on your endpoints. You can also customize the scan settings, such as scan mode, scan frequency, scan scope, scan actions, and scan exclusions. You can use the client interface to run scans manually or change the scan settings using a graphical interface, or you can use the command line to run scans manually or change the scan settings using commands.
Viewing reports: Reports are the documents that Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 generates to provide information about the status and activity of your endpoint security. You can view reports on various topics, such as security risks, compliance status, policy enforcement, system events, network events, and more. You can also customize the report settings, such as report format, report frequency, report scope, report filters, and report delivery. You can use the management console to view reports using a graphical interface, or you can use the command line to view reports using commands.
Performing actions: Actions are the tasks that Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 performs to manage your endpoint security. You can perform actions manually or automatically on your endpoints. Some of the common actions are update content, quarantine files, delete files, restore files, block applications, allow applications, lock system, unlock system, restart system, and more. You can use the management console to perform actions manually or schedule actions automatically using a graphical interface, or you can use the command line to perform actions manually or schedule actions automatically using commands.
These are some of the common configuration tasks that you can perform with Symantec Endpoint Protection 12. For more details and instructions on how to configure Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using the management console, the client interface, or the command line, you can refer to the official documentation at https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/symantec-security-software/endpoint-security-and-management/endpoint-protection/all.html.
Updating Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
One of the most important tasks to keep your endpoint security up-to-date is to update Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 regularly. Updating Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 means downloading and installing the latest content and patches from Broadcom. Content includes virus definitions, firewall rules, behavioral signatures, and more. Patches include bug fixes, security enhancements, feature improvements, and more. Updating Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 helps you to protect your endpoints from the latest threats and improve the performance and stability of your endpoint security.
You can update Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using two methods: LiveUpdate or manual methods. LiveUpdate is an automatic and convenient method that downloads and installs the latest content and patches from Broadcom servers. Manual methods are alternative methods that require you to download and install the latest content and patches from the Broadcom Support Portal or other sources.
Here are the steps to update Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using LiveUpdate:
Open the Symantec Endpoint Protection client interface on your endpoint.
Click on LiveUpdate on the left pane.
Click on Start on the right pane.
The LiveUpdate progress screen will appear. Wait for the LiveUpdate to complete.
The LiveUpdate completed screen will appear. Click on Close.
The Symantec Endpoint Protection client interface will display the status of your endpoint security and the date and time of the last update.
If you want to update Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 using manual methods, you can use the following steps:
Go to https://support.broadcom.com/ and log in with your credentials.
Click on Download Software and select Symantec Endpoint Protection from the product list.
Select the version you want to update, which is 12.1 RU6 MP10 as of June 2023.
Select the language you want to update, which is English by default.
Select the platform you want to update, which is either Windows or Linux.
Select the file you want to update, which is either Symantec_Endpoint_Protection_12.1.6_MP10_Win64-bit_Client_EN.exe for Windows or Symantec_Endpoint_Protection_12.1.6_MP10_Linux_Client_EN.tar.gz for Linux.
Click on Download Selected Files and save the file to your preferred location.
Double-click on the file that you downloaded from the Broadcom Support Portal.
If prompted by User Account Control, click on Yes.
If prompted by Windows Defender SmartScreen, click on Run anyway.
The installation wizard will start and display the welcome screen. Click on Next.
The license agreement screen will appear. Read the license agreement and select I accept the terms in the license agreement. Click on Next.
The installation type screen will appear. Select Migrate Existing Client Installation. Click on Next.
The ready to install screen will appear. Click on Install.
The installation progress screen will appear. Wait for the installation to complete.
The installation completed screen will appear. Click on Finish.
The Symantec Endpoint Protection client interface will open and display the status of your endpoint security and the date and time of the last update.
How to Troubleshoot and Uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
Sometimes, you may encounter some issues with Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 that require troubleshooting or uninstalling. Troubleshooting means finding and fixing the root cause of the issues, such as errors, crashes, conflicts, or performance problems. Uninstalling means removing Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 from your endpoints completely, such as when you want to switch to another endpoint security solution or when troubleshooting fails to resolve the issues.
Troubleshooting Symantec Endpoint Protection 12
Troubleshooting Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 can be done using various tools and resources provided by Broadcom. Some of these tools and resources are:
SymDiag: This is a diagnostic tool that collects information about your endpoints, such as system configuration, installed applications, security settings, logs, reports, and more. It can also analyze the collected information and provide recommendations for resolving common issues with Symantec Endpoint Protection 12. You can download SymDiag from href="">https://www.broadcom.com/support/security-center/symdiag and run it on your endpoints.
Logs: These are the files that Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 generates to record the events and activities of your endpoint security. They can provide useful information for troubleshooting issues, such as error messages, warning messages, debug messages, and more. You can view the logs using the management console, the client interface, or the log viewer tool.
Reports: These are the documents that Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 generates to provide information about the status and activity of your endpoint security. They can provide useful information for troubleshooting issues, such as security risks, compliance status, policy enforcement, system events, network events, and more. You can view the reports using the management console or the report viewer tool.
Support Resources: These are the