Right, I've posted in the main NIS forum and Suggestions forum of an issue when APC is Off.
The issue seems to only start from NIS 2012 right up to NIS 2014 and it seems there's more Symantec employee contribution to the Beta threads than to the other threads!
In NIS 2011 on Win7x64, with APC Off and AEM Off, if I open a browser (IE & FF) I am prompted ONCE to allow the browser to listen to incoming connections. Once I Allow This Instance, I am free to browse any website I want without further APC prompts or intervention. That remains the case for that browsing session.
However with NIS 2012 right up to NIS 2014 (which is the lowest version compatible with Win 8.1) I am constantly prompted by APC for every domain / subdomain / port that IE / FF is trying to access. It has become more like domain / port control and not Program Control. It has made any browsing session totally unusable as the APC prompts well in excess of 50+ times that I have given up counting / logging.
Surely if I allow an executable to access the internet for that session, that should be so.
More detailed testing notes can be found here.
Hopefully an employee can replicate the issue by running NIS 2011 and NIS 2014 side by side with APC Off and AEM Off and try accessing one or more browser tabs / homepages...