Has anyone observed an increase in cpu activity by the windows ‘LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall’ process over the past few months?
By a process of elimination of suggested solutions from internet searches, the most prominent reason, from the remaining solutions, for this increase, is a conflict between the Norton settings and Windows Defender settings. The suggested solution is; uninstall Norton and re-install. As my Norton settings are the default settings, I am not confident in that solution.
I can think of another reason, and that is Windows Defender while recognising Norton as the security for the device, is not acknowledging such.
If anyone has experienced this issue or has any observations, or, solutions, please let me know.
The symptoms described seem identical to what I am exoeriencing. However, I have already tried the suggested solutions except for ‘Windows Settings Mode’ which indicates that notifications from Smart Firewall would cease. I read that as meaning Smart Firewall is effectively relinquishing the firewall to Windows Defender, thereby rendering Norton 360 superfluous.
‘Windows Settings Mode’ is a setting in Norton Smart Firewall that was suggested in the link that you sent me, that was reported to have had some measure of success with reducing LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall CPU utilisation.
As for the other solutions, I have tried them without success.
I suspect that in the recent past a Norton automatic update introduced some new aspect to Smart Firewall that Windows Defender reacted to. The increased CPU activity of LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall was noticed over time, but cannot now be traced back to when it began.
I do not allow Windows automatic updates - I prefer to control when I update Windows. All I can say is, the elevated CPU utilisation began before I last updated Windows, which I did in the hope that it would fix the elevated CPU utilisation.
Yes, I have tried all the suggestions, to no avail. LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall is still running amok, impacting other processes. My other windows devices all show elevated cpu utilisation by LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall.
My latest action, taken recently, was to remove Norton 360 altogether from this device and leave security in the hands of Windows Defender. So far no sign of LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall. I will be comparing this device with my other windows devices that run Norton to see if it is any less effective at protection. If it isn’t, then I will be looking at cancelling my Norton subscription when it comes up for renewal in a few months time.
Thanks. When 3rd party A/V is installed Defender gets disabled with the exception of the Windows Firewall, which is required for Windows Updates to function correctly. If firewall alerts are coming from Defender something isn’t installed correctly. Defender shouldn’t be blocking Norton.
[Sorry, the forum is not allowing me to display more than one image - what a narrow perspective to adopt for an exchange of information forum!]
with LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall sitting at the top of CPU utilisation [you’ll need to take my word for this].
This suggests to me that Windows Defender, in contradiction with what it shows above, thinks that there is no firewall running and is stepping in to fill the supposed gap. If that is the case, then it would appear Windows Defender is at fault.
But, I do not allow automatic Windows updates and I first noticed LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall increased CPU utilisation between Windows updates, therefore any other influencing factor is most likely to have been introduced through a Norton 360 automatic update.
I do not know what interaction there is between Norton 360 Firewall and Windows Defender Firewall, but something is getting lost in translation between the two. Norton is not the only product affected, I have come across Kaspersky users complaining of the same issue.
