Recent Norton Internet Security Update Continuously Ties Up Windows Background Transfer Service

I am running Windows XP with all the current Service Packs and updates.  My Internet connection is solely through dial-up service.  Until yesterday I was running Norton Internet Security 2008.  After noting the following problem and contacting Norton technical services through "Chat" for help and not solving the problem, I downloaded and updated to Norton Internet Security 2010 (an 84MB update) plus I ran Live Update for another 63MBs of updates (taking many, many hours to download) to make Norton Internet Security 2010 completely current.  That did not fix the problem.  The problem is as follows:

 

I recently, within the last few weeks, began to notice continuous background network activity and disk access activity whenever my computer was connected to the Internet. The exact date the trouble started I don't know because my telephone line was not working during recent constant rain storms.  After studying processes running via the Task Manager and finally viewing the Network Activity Log available on Norton Internet Security 2008 (but NOT available on the 2010 version), I was able to determine that multi-megabytes of I/O was constantly being sent from http://liveupdate.symantec.com. I also found the only way to halt the continuous network activity was to stop the Windows "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"(BITS) via the "Services" Administrative Tool (NOT a solution!)  After installing Norton Internet Security 2010 I could only trace the network activity to an IP address of Akamai Technologies (a major network communication service company contracted by many big software corporations (including Microsoft) to handle downloads and updates to users.)

 

This constant BITS activity slowed my Internet communications and also interfered with downloading Windows System Updates which also uses BITS, i.e. Norton Internet Security is continuously HOGGING the Windows BITS service!  The problem exists in BOTH Norton Internet Security 2008 and 2010.  My chat with the Norton tech revealed that there has been a recent Live Update concerning a new "Pulse Updates" service.  It appears that this recent "Pulse Updates" feature has a great deal to do with Norton Internet Security tying up the BITS service.  Prior to this update, I had no problem.  While Norton Internet Security 2010 allows you to turn off "Pulse Updates", turning it off has absolutely no effect on the constant background network activity and constant disk access activity and the tying up of the BITS service.

 

NOTE: The constant disk and network activity COMPLETELY CEASED during the time Norton Internet Security 2008 was removed and prior to the installation of Norton Internet Security 2010.  The problem resumed the instant Norton Internet Security 2010 was installed.  There is NO QUESTION the problem is caused by Norton Internet Security.

 

The Bottom Line:  Symantec needs to quickly address and fix this problem or I will no longer be a Norton Internet Security customer.

As I read what you wrote, you downloaded NIS 2010 and the updates. How did you remove 2008 and its associated liveupdate. Did you remove both NIS 2008 and Liveupdate or just NIS 2008? Did you use Norton Removal tool? If you did use NRT did you use it one or twice and did you reboot between attempts?

 

I installed Norton Internet Security 2010 by running the update from the Symantec website and letting it handle the removal of Norton Internet Security 2008 and 2010 installation.  Prior to resetting the computer to finish the 2010 installation I checked that the continuous BITS activity and disk accessing had completely stopped.  (The first time it was quiet since the problem began!!!)  A new version of LiveUpdate was also installed with NIS 2010:

 

"C:\Program Files\Norton Internet Security\Engine\17.5.0.127\uistub.exe" /lu

Modified:  Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 10:08:35 PM

 


Nortin_to_lose wrote:
This constant BITS activity slowed my Internet communications and also interfered with downloading Windows System Updates which also uses BITS, i.e. Norton Internet Security is continuously HOGGING the Windows BITS service! 

 

Probably not BITS, which only uses whatever bandwidth is available at the time.  From WIkipedia:

 

 


BITS uses unused bandwidth to transfer data. Normally, BITS transfers data in the background, i.e., BITS will only transfer data whenever there is bandwidth which is not being used by other applications, for example, when applications use 80% of the available bandwidth, BITS will use only the remaining 20%. BITS constantly monitors network traffic for any increase or decrease in network traffic and accordingly throttles its own transfers to ensure that other foreground applications (such as a web browser) get the bandwidth they need. BITS also supports resuming transfers in case of disruptions.

I am not sure what sort of priority Norton communications would have or if it would use BITS regardless of available bandwidth, but in general, BITS should not slow you down.

 

Regardless, Norton is still tying up BITS and forcing Windows Updates and other downloading programs to compete for the BITS service and causing unnecessary activity and wear on my disk drive and is unnecessarily  consuming CPU time.  Plus with the disk access light constantly flashing, I cannot monitor legitimate I/O activity, and it's just plain annoying.  I am NOT going to stand for this.  There are plenty of other security products out there besides Norton which don't have this problem.

Instead of using Task Manager (included in the OS), please try Process Explorer (available for free from Microsoft here).  You can get a much better detailed report of exactly what process is using what service.  On my system, with NIS2010 installed, the BITS service is not even being disturbed by Norton.

 

(As a side note; you can run this program from the Web now and do not even have to download it.  Details can be found about this on the Microsoft web site.)

And while you are at Microsoft/Windows Sysinternals looking into Process Explorer, you might also want to check out TCPView to replace the Network Activity Log that is no longer a part of NIS.


Nortin_to_lose wrote:

I installed Norton Internet Security 2010 by running the update from the Symantec website and letting it handle the


I have a vague recollection that the liveupdate used in 2008 is not automatically removed in 2010 update. Its worth checking Add/remove programs and seeing if there is any liveupdate entry. The liveupdate in 2010 is inbuilt and your cannot run luall as I recall. It might be worth uninstalling, NRT twice and reinstalling NIS 2010 direct. Anyway, my colleagues have made some other suggestions to you now so I wil leave you to follow their advice.