Having _endless_ trouble downloading a trial program from Symantec's FTP-hostile website

[MISS_CHIEVOUS]

My God what I've been through trying to work with SYMANTEC.COM Jesus.  First, using two different browsers just to download a trial of BESR DESKTOP . . . and then, accomplishing the >>TWO HOUR REGISTRATION EXERCISE just to create a profile with these forums . . . and then locating a general SYMANTEC.COM Forums Support.

I marvel anyone makes it this far!  If I didn't know Symantec to be a reputable company I would chuck the whole process and just get Acronis! :((

Look, it's not complicated:
I'm building a new XP computer and want to demo Symantec's Backup Executive System Recovery (Desktop) 8.5.  I use a perfectly good FTP program whenever I download (anything) because I'm on a slow dial-up connection.

Firefox passed the ZIP file with no interruption to my FTP program.  Nothing.
Next I observed the second download option for "skipping the Download Manager" and tried that route.  Nothing.
Alright, I've run into this with companies who maintain this annoying restriction of requiring MS Explorer to get anything done and . . .
Go through the whole process of getting to the friggin download page using Explorer.  Nothing.
Attempt Option 2 through IE.  Nothing.
Click the "If you're having problems . . ." help icon and follow all instructions.  Nothing.

Let me ask Symantec just one question:
Since you're making it impossible for me to use my FTP client -- since you won't allow either Firefox or IE -- is there a way for me to phone in a request for a BESR DESKTOP 8.5 evaluation CD to be >>MAILED TO ME at no cost?

Even now I don't know if this will actually post because I'm frankly unclear where exactly I am in your labrythine site.  The only reason I was able to locate this sub-forum was through a search and then backing out of someone else's post to see where the hell I had LANDED. 

This has got to be the most unbelievably user hostile corporate site I think I've ever encountered.  :((

MC

[LeslieMiller]

Hi MC-- We have escalated your request and hope to have an answer back for you soon. In addition, we have placed the post in the Backup and Archiving area in case another community member can help.

If you'd like to easily find this area again, you can access http://www.symantec.com/connect. The Connect community site is designed specifically to provide a community for users of Symantec's business products.

Hope this helps.

[Rob_Muller]

Holy Cow! And you aren't kidding!

At first I thought, "Oh, I'm sure it's just her connection.'

Nope. It's not.

Miss Chevious, they utilize a Java program that is a Download Manager all on its own. That means if you're computer has trouble with java, or if you don't have the latest Java engine downloaded, then you're up a creek.

I just went to go download it myself, and I ended up with three windows opened up BESIDES my current window where I started the whole process!!!  That's insane!  

Miss Chevious, I'll send you a private message, to help you with your computer (since it's technically not a symantec deal if your Java is broken).

[MISS_CHIEVOUS]

Leslie I'm a long, long-time Symantec business user -- going all the way back to Talkworks (formerly Delrina), WinFax, Ghost, Partition Manager, and of course Norton Utilities -- and I have to tell you the Symantec site is so hostile to a dial-up, occassional internet user such as myself, if I didn't already know the company was reputable I frankly would have tossed you for an interfering, needlessly-arcane, "We Dare You to Make it through The Guantlet" eCommerce site with an inexplicable contempt for its users.  To get to the point where I could even post this to your forums I had to dispose of no less than three different email addresses and repeated cookies-removal exercises. Two different browsers. Just now, I clipped some text to insert it into this post and had to suffer a POP-UP window just to perform the edit!!!!  A simple CNTL V text exercise.  Jesus Christ, who is your IP head, Dr. Strangelove?

This may come as a shock to Symantec Leslie, but not everyone has broadband.  If you think I'm going to commence a 272 mb download without the Resume + logging features of my FTP client -- on a dial-up connection -- and play "Oops, connection dropped! let's begin again from the beginning!" with Symantec I tell you right now I won't.  I'm a businesswoman and I don't suffer fools gladly because I'm trying to manage a business.

I will ask this once again madame:
Would Symantec please mail to me a 60-day evaluation CD of BESR DESKTOP 8.5?  You may have an account executive PM me and I'll provide you with our mailing address.

MC

[MISS_CHIEVOUS]

Rob, you can read my reply to Leslie, above.  If you have a workaround, please post it publicly.  This website is a textbook example of the old adage, "Just because you know how to do a thing doesn't mean you should."  If I didn't know Symantec better I would swear high school computer lab seniors had been hired to treat with the entire site like a Christmas tree and hang superfluous CRAP on its boughs like so many ornaments.

JAVASCRIPT?!

Jesus wept.

mc

[KSchroeder]

FTP, while a die-hard transfer mechanism, just isn't a very modern approach to software distribution.  It is terribly insecure when using password protected content, and very few people still use a dedicated FTP client.  In any case, I just went through the "nightmare" of dowloading BESR-DE and had 0 problems at all using both IE8 and Firefox (3.5 no less).  The download manager fired right up after accepting the installation.  This download manager fully supports resuming transfers, as well as any FTP client.  Granted I'm not on dialup, but it works the same either way (with both IE and Firefox).  As suggested above, maybe you do have a problem with Java on Firefox (or some ActiveX problem in IE) which is preventing the DL manager from loading properly.