Norton Mobile Security

[vthinagar]

Hi, i've installed Norton mobile security (2.5 lite)on my galaxy s2 running on android ICS 4.0.3. I notice that there 2 are process and 1 service running under norton. One of the process is google play store. Why is this play store running under norton? Also i notice the combine RAM usage keeps increasing (especially for play store) until around 40Mb. Is this normal? I have another phone running with android GB (it has play store process too) but the combine RAM hardly goes more than 25Mb. Hope to get some advice. Thanks.

[Andmike]

Hi vithnagar.

Welcome to the Community.

Sorry but just at the moment I cannot answer your questions.  This may be because I don't understand them and don't have a Galaxy S2 or ICS.  So can you help me understand a little better?

When you say " I notice that there 2 are process and 1 service running under norton." where do you see this?  Is this through some feature of the Android operating system or an app?  Either way can you provide some more details please?

I also notice that Google Play seems to take up more and more space and so I regularly clear out the cache but I have not kept any records so I cannot currently comment on what size it would normally get to with my system.

Does your other phone also have NMS on it?  Are you seeing a similar situation on that - apart from the smaller space used by Google Play?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

[vthinagar]

Hi Andmike,

                      Thanks for your reply. Let me explain, on my galaxy s2 phone (android running ice cream sandwich 4.0.3) when I see the current running application (back ground applications) I could see  NMS and the RAM its consuming. Under NMS its stated that its running 2 process and 1 service. One process and 1 service belongs to Norton and the other process states as Google Play Store. As for the Norton process and service the RAM consume is usually low (12 MB to 18MB) but the other process Google Play Store consumes sometimes up to 25MB. Combining both NMS shows as consuming 30 to 40MB at times. When I force stop Norton and restart it, Google play store disappears, but then restarting the phone starts it again. At one time when I had to factory reset the phone and re-install NMS, it was running only 1 service and 1 process and RAM hardly goes beyond 20MB, until I restart the phone, then Google play store appear again. Under the Google Play Store process its says "Google market service billing is running". I do believe its genuine, since my other phone also android but ginger bread version and has the same process and service but then the combine RAM consumed normally around 20 to 25MB. I just wanted to know what why is Google play store associated with Norton and also is the RAM consumed normal? Thanks....

[Andmike]

Hi vthinagar.

Please forgive me if I get this wrong as I have not seen ICS in operation but I suspect it is close enough to my 2.2 to try and answer or at least a half one.

I now assume that when you say "when I see the current running application (back ground applications) I could see  NMS and the RAM its consuming. Under NMS its stated that its running 2 process and 1 service. "  you are referring to starting at the Android home screen, selecting menu: Settings: Applications: Running services.  When I select that I see a number of items including NMS but not normally Google Play.  However my version of NMS is not sourced from Google Play and so does not need to check its license with Google Play.  However when I start up an app that is registered with Google Play then starting that also shows Google Play on the "Running Services" screen.  So my assumption is that you are seeing this because NMS is trying to check that it has a valid license.

As for the memory used by Google Play then I have noticed that over time the Cache associated with Google Play grows and I therefore clear it out every now and again.  If NMS is causing Google Play to start up then the Cache associated with Google Play (in its general use) will presumably show.  I have just checked this by ensuring that Google Play was closed and with no Cache.  I then started up an app that checks a license.  Under "Running Services" this showed Google Play as using 5.4 MB.  I then logged onto Google Play to check that my apps were up to date, updated one and then went back to "Running Services" to see what it said about Google Play next to my licensed app.  It now showed not 5.4 MB but 20 MB!  So the size of the memory used seems to be that associated with Google Play and not just the app it is shown next to in Running Services.

I'm not sure that the above answers your questions but I hope it moves us both closer to an understanding.

Over to you.

[vthinagar]

Hi Andmike,
Thanks for your reply.Now i have a better understanding of the matter. Im running NMS Lite thought before i get the full version i wanted to know how it works etc. Im not sure if it makes sense of the RAM usage, or whether if it will slow down the phone but i do feel uncomfortable knowing 2nd process actually uses more RAM than the main app. itself. Lastly could you please check for me the NMS RAM usage on your android 2.2? I could compare the usage on my other mobile running android ginger bread 2.3 also having NMS from google play store.

[Andmike]

Hello again vthinagar.

If your concern is - will NMS slow my Galaxy S2?  Then I can fairly certainly say - not that you will notice.  Most of the time it sits quietly in the background, the only time I notice it is when it is scheduled to do a full scan of my device plus SD card which can take several minutes and then takes up some noticeable processor power on my small, old and resource limited device.  If you don't have it what would you use in its place?  Would you do without security software?  My device has 416 MB of memory and 208 MB of internal storage of which about 5 MB is taken up by NMS.  Compared with your device these figures look puny.

However to answer your question about how big it is, or seems to be.  If I go to "Running Services" it shows a figure of 16 MB.  I do not understand what the 16 MBis referring to so cannot comment on that.  However in "manage applications" its total size is shown as 4.96 MB or which "application" is 4.23 MB and "Data" is 744 KB.  Checking through another app gives similar results to the "manage applications" figures.  

I hope that helps you.

[vthinagar]

Hi Andmike,
Thank again for your reply. I will definately have an anti-virus, and i like Norton. Been using Norton on my pc since 4 years ago. What have been going on my mind is, will the RAM usage be lower had i download from Norton website? Is the google play store process is just eating my resources?
However as you said, comparing my other mobile the RAM usage almost same as yours. Probaly for my S2, since ICS is new, maybe some bugs or could be its normal. I will give it a pass now. Thanks!

[Andmike]

Hi vthinagar.

Two thoughts.

If you are using an android device it is pretty difficult to avoid Google Play - and you do have plenty of resources on your phone.

If you have Norton on your PC and are thinking of using Norton on your mobile have you considered Norton One?  I have put a link to it here if you are interested.  That would give you the use of NMS without going through Google Play!

Good luck in whatever you decide.

[vthinagar]

Hello Andmike,
You are right about android and google. For your info yesterday the RAM usage when upto 48Mb, i notice everytime i browse google play or download, RAM increases for google play store under NMS (as you told me) I restarted the phone and the NMS RAM usage drop to 15Mb. Guess for time being this what i could do.
I will look into Norton One, sounds good.
Thanks for the info.

[Andmike]

Hi vthinagar.

You do not necessarily have to restart the phone to clear the Google Play cache, though restarting the phone every now and again is probably a good idea - it should give you a clean reboot.  You can clear the Google Play cache by going to Menu: Settings: Applications: Manage applications: then select Google Play store and "clear cache".  Or if you would like to try the Norton Mobile Utilities Beta app which is available free from Google Play.  That gives you an opportunity to monitor your memory and clear all the caches you wish at one go.  Just a thought.

All the best.