My first post here: I am seeking to sever ties of software, installed on my desktop, to its website. I have been a user of iS@#$@#r for a few years, but am now seeking to limit interaction with the website - particularly its social media aspects. I still have a credit balance, to purchase daily-offered shows - and that may take a month, or months, to reduce. When it does - the software can be used without internet access (tested) - but, hopefully, without any website interaction. The more aggressive members are having a deleterious affect on my fragile health and my doctor has proved this correlation with medical readings over months. So, when my credits are exhausted at the site, I expect to only `link' with the site, every three months for an hour or two - but software usage is hoped to vary with those limitations. Without actually turning off the modem - or otherwise going offline (cutting off other aspects, including Norton updates) - the moment the software is started, it makes contact with the website servers. I am no technical wiz, so this question may be naïve. Can anyone, please, tell me if my Norton 360 has this capacity, or, if there is further software needed? Thank you.
Passing_thru
No problems here with our misunderstanding what happened. We all start out in a new medium/forum learning the ropes.
We are all here to try to help when we have information we can pass on that might help. Just hope that we have been able to pass on some useful information.
Don't hesitate to post again if you have another Norton related problem/question.
Thank you, floplot
A very kind offer - and helpful advice as to Private Messages. Having so little technical knowledge - especially with regards Norton software - I would be more of a hindrance than a help on this Forum. Like the one asking about the rules and basics of a game, in the middle of that game. 
I am seeking to master some `artistic' software, recently purchased, so that will be my likely focus - along with one of my children's marriage in a couple of months.
I truly appreciate your kindness and your friendly communications! In fact the only hostile remarks, in my very short visit here, have been mine. 
To my shame.
Wishing you a generous return on your appreciated friendly manner - a trait I truly admire! Have a well-deserved great weekend! 
THANK YOU! You have earned it much more than I.
Hello Passing Thru
If you click on Account on the top of the Forum, you will find some useful information. It tells you about Private Messages. Use a Windows Administrator Account and then you can make changes and customize it the way you like. Don't forget to click on SAVE at the bottom of that Section. You are welcome to continue to use the Forum.
Have a Nice Day and
Thanks.
Thank you, SendOfJive - not only for (I hope) excusing my stupidity - but for your further wise advice!
With still a fair balance of website `credits', I was going to interact with the site for a little while, anyway - just without Forum and PM participation. And at times that I am less likely to `draw fire'. As I am in Australia and the website is in Europe - that is not too hard. From the emails received from that site's friendlier members, it would seem that my alarm and `preventative' strategies may well have been a proverbial `storm in a teacup'! Just like my presumption here - my massive consternation may well be over very little. People have moved on - as need do I. I guess that is why I am on the medications ... 
You have been very kind, tolerant and helpful. I can only thank you, again and, - even this late in my life - assure you that I will draw a lesson from this.
Wishing a great weekend. 
Hi Passing-Thru,
Thanks for posting back. Don't feel too bad - it was just a misunderstanding. The TOS of the website and software really governs whether you are allowed to block access or not. I found that you cannot block access to updates, but couldn't find anything specifically mentioning accessing the website or forum. Not sure if it is practical to block one without blocking the other. The easiest thing might be to just close the tab when the website loads and go on with your day, unless your goal is to prevent the site from appearing in your browser history for privacy reasons.
peterweb
As in my reply to SendOfJive, I was not aware that the site obscuring was not part of a post/thread acceptance protocol.
My first-ever thread here - and I strongly suspect my last. That my requested email call for deletion had not yet been acted upon, suggests some follow-up by me - or maybe there is a processing delay of which I know nothing.
Thank you for your endeavours, as to the site masking, and your perseverance. As it happened `off-stage', I was not exactly aware of how it happened, only, when I next looked, it had happened.
I neither knew of Personal Messages nor did I knowingly disable them.
I will slink off blushing now.
Thank you for your explanations - my apologies. First post for me, so I entered the website - trying to ensure specificity to make the problem clear, despite my lack of IT knowledge. When I looked later it was obscured. I thought that was part of the `acceptance' of the post - not knowing what happens then.
My misunderstanding. Having guessed that it was an immediate protocol, that lead me to the thought that you must have circumvented the obscuring. Which in turn made me doubt the veracity of the site security itself.
I had spoken on the phone with Norton. What you, SendOfJive, and peterweb have written is the first that I am reading that the obscuring was not done from the start. So my concern - I am up to my eyeballs in protection on my desktop - was really based on wrongly-assumed parameters. I nominated the website as - it being Norton-approved - its website/app relationship might be unique. I do not have the technical knowledge to `explain' their interaction.
My apologies - clearly I have over-reacted - and to a problem of my own initiation and ignorance.
Thank you both.
As an aside, I am puzzled that my Forum account still exists - following phone advice, I had unsubscribed from the thread and sent an email to have my account deleted. Yet here I am logged in. And my email provider was to block the emails. After the blunder above, I am more sheepish about taking anyone to task!
Good Forum members, my embarrassed apologies - and thanks - for the follow up! Please excuse an old-aged novice!
I read your post before the website was obscured and I checked their TOS at that time. If you are upset, you should not have posted the name of the website at all. Wow.
If you had not disabled PMs in this forum I could explain why your web site was masked. Posting that web site name was a contradiction of the forum rules and policies because of the nature of that site.
Some of the gurus here monitor all posts that come in, and like I did, SendOfJive probably saw the post before I asked the moderators to mask the name.
I am puzzled by your comment, as - to me - the originally nominated website, to which I referred, is obscured - by Norton, not by me. So your apparent familiarity with terms and conditions of website - the identity of which, to me, at least, is obscured - on a internet security site - is perplexing. It may even impact on my renewing my subscription in a couple of months! I have submitted a notification to a Moderator. I have also raised the concern over the phone and been instructed, by a Norton representative, as to how to withdraw from the Community Forum. They have agreed that my concern is understandable - and said the matter will be looked into.
I have ensured email notifications, from this Forum, are now `blacklisted' and thereby automatically deleted by my email-provider.
I am not challenging what you said - not disregarding it. From advice from friends at the other site, time may well have rendered the problem moot - although the query into offending party there seems to have ceased simply by my withdrawal from that arena - a matter I may raise with support there separately. But, your assumed awareness of information, to all intents and purposes, `hidden' - at in a Norton forum - that seems seriously wrong! An indictment of `internal' security.
Passing-Thru:The other simpler option, simply turn off my modem when utilising the app. That will also stop emails, updates, etc.
If you read the Terms of Service for that software, it states that the software must be allowed to check for and install updates upon opening and that by using the software, you agree to allow this.
Thank you, peterweb
I have sought answers in that Forum - among some website-savvy community members - and we were close to a solution involving access to the coding - until the site closed the thread - with a warning-to-me rebuke! I can understand the potential threat to them and the marketing they generate. And that thread is open to many, many members.
Certainly, I have utilised all of the available website/app settings, in as many configurations as I could, but to no avail.
I think I have one of two options - and your comprehensive advice has helped me reach this view - including the win/lose block IP/but lose all contact should it be needed, even for a support query. This would also apply to various software website blockers recommended by friends. The other simpler option, simply turn off my modem when utilising the app. That will also stop emails, updates, etc., but if it is a planned and limited modem shutdown, inconvenience can be minimalized.
Thank you for your perseverance. I believe that your suggestions have given me as good a solution as I am likely to get. Certainly within the limitations of my capabilities. Again thank you.
I would suggest that the app and the website use the same IP address. So if you block that IP, you would be blocking the app from accessing that site, but at the same time if you wanted to access the site with your browser it too would be blocked.
So unless the app can have settings to limit the social media features from the other features you want to use, it is an all or nothing proposition as far as blocking goes.
It is the social media interaction that I am trying to avoid - website personal messages, forum responses, etc.
These types of messages are often controlled at the web site itself. As an example, the messages you get here when your thread has a new response is controlled by the forum software. Look around the website and see if you can find your profile settings, and turn off the messages. Also post in their forums to see if anyone can help.
Hi floplot - and Good Night (the middle of the day here
I will certainly see what might be done with the cookies. I had hoped the solution might fall with the Norton 360 or its suite of software. I have had a few emailed recommendations, from friends, of other software.
If Norton's does not have that capacity, I will need to investigate that other software.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, it is what the app can do that I want, it is the stuff from the website that is the problem. The ideal would be to have the app be forever offline - but still able to receive emails, Norton updates, etc. However the moment the app starts - as long as there are no connection-with-the-internet problems - it links immediately. The app is great. It is the social media interaction that I am trying to avoid - website personal messages, forum responses, etc.
Thank you anyway.
Hello
How about removing the cookies for that website. There might be separate cookies for those parts of the program that you don't want. Just an idea, but may not work.
Have a Good Night and
Thanks.
If you can access the content you want without the app, just uninstall the app and use the web interface for that site.
Thank you for your prompt reply, peterweb. 
I have this setting already in place. And also whenever I open the desktop app, I have to `close' it twice )once leaves it `open' on the taskbar, then `quit' it from the taskbar icon. I have even tried to rebooting the desktop after those aspects are addressed. However, once the app is opened, contact with servers is established immediately and automatically and the process needs to be repeated.
Unless the desktop is off-line, it will automatically establish contact with the website servers. I have tried a number of the app's settings - have stopped notifications - but always the servers will fill the app with message awaiting response, credit balance and full Forum link-up.
I have asked the `support' of the website. I was advised that the app will not run unless connected with the internet. True for the whole functionality of the app, but the shows can be played independently of the internet. It is those website functions such as messaging and Forum and credit balance - only these do not run when offline. And those are the aspects I am happy to forego.
I had hoped that Norton 360 might be able to establish a `targeted' firewall against specific sites - and that should resolve the situation - or Norton has a specific software for this type of `protection'.
Thank you for your assistance - I appreciate your suggestion. I thought it might have worked when I first tried it, then, despondently, saw just that opening the app, took everything back back to `normal'.
You need to find a setting in the site's software to stop it loading on system start.
What operating system are you using. If Win 10, right click on your taskbar at the bottom of the screen and click on Task Manager. Then click on the Startup tab, and find the software you want to block. Click on that software and then click Disable. That should stop it from loading automatically.