Exclude NovaBACKUP client web addresses in Norton - Smart Firewall - Traffic Rule settings, otherwise if the Smart Firewall feature is enabled, then the NovaBACKUP client can fail the activation/registration workflows, and the 'Check for Updates' function

Certain versions of the Norton Anti-Virus (AV) software, that contain the "Smart Firewall" feature of that app (we are not sure which exact versions of the Norton Anti-Virus products do have that feature in them, but certainly the latest version as of 03/10/2025 does contain that feature, which is enabled by default), may block firewall communications, in its own "Smart Firewall" feature (unless you temp disable that feature first), with the installed NovaBACKUP (21.0 and newer versions) client, that can interfere with the license/activation/registration functions, as well as the "Check for Updates" feature in the backup client. This can result in failed licensing, activation, and registration workflows, and it has been seen to break the "Check for Updates" function as well, which in the former case can affect even switching from trial mode to licensed mode in that case, or even changing your "Help > Registration" dialog information, such as your "Name" field value even, failure for the application to survive a client upgrade, since it will have to activate and register the software again even for client upgrades anyhow. You will want to record what settings in the Norton AV app that you do correct for the resolution in this KB article to make those two items work, as if you ever were to re-install the Norton AV software or re-install your entire computer with NovaBACKUP and Norton AV app in place, in the future, you will want to know what to do to get it working again for these aspects then.

Note: This guide should be able to also apply to NovaBACKUP 20.x and older legacy versions, but it just has not been fully tested to know the answer on that to know 100% for sure.

To apply the fix to Norton AV, so that you don't have to remember to disable the "Smart Firewall" feature everytime you want to license/activate/register the software going forward, without having to remember to manually disable the "Smart Firewall" feature everytime before doing that, follow this instruction set:

In Norton Anti-Virus app Settings, go to "Security > Advanced > Smart Firewall" (the "Smart Firewall" feature is enabled by default), and then click on the "Traffic Rules" section under that, and then go to the "More" dialog at the top right of that dialog and then click on "+ Create new rule", like this:

In the "Create new rule" dialog enter in the following 1st new rule information, in the various fields there (and the field values that are not default enabled that way are in bold and red color below, for the values):

Name: ls.novabackup.com

Enabled: Yes

Action: Allow

Protocol: All

Profile: All

Direction: In/Out

Address: 52.7.171.63 (or whatever the current IP address that performing the 'ping ls.novabackup.com' command, via a Command Prompt on that machine, tells you what that IP is in the command output, but just know that this IP should not really change ever); the "Address" field cannot have a DNS address specified as the value, so we do have to utilize the IPv4 address in this field value due to that.

Reporting: None (or this choice is up to you really, but you don't need to report on this).

That will take care of the failed licensing, activation, and registration workflows, but not the "Check for Updates" function as well. To fix the "Check for Updates" function as well, then you can create one more Traffic Rule for that, by reading the next step, detailed below, in addition to what you already had added above:

In the "Create new rule" dialog enter in the following 2nd new rule information, in the various fields there (and the field values that are not default enabled that way are in bold and red color below, for the values):

Name: webservice.novabackup.com

Enabled: Yes

Action: Allow

Protocol: All

Profile: All

Direction: In/Out

Address: 69.55.178.69 (or whatever the current IP address that performing the 'ping ls.novabackup.com' command, via a Command Prompt on that machine, tells you what that IP is in the command output, but just know that this IP is not likely to change anytime soon); the "Address" field cannot have a DNS address specified as the value, so we do have to utilize the IPv4 address in this field value due to that.

Reporting: None (or this choice is up to you really, but you don't need to report on this).

And then after adding both of the Traffic Rules you can check them in the list, like this:

Note: Even if you have ALL of the NovaBACKUP client processes or folders excluded in Norton Anti-Virus (as detailed for what those process names or folder names to exclude are, in our other separate KB article here), which are the Anti-Virus Exclusions in that case, just having those Exclusion entries in place, for the Anti-Virus component, won't allow this to work, you must also have the "Smart Firewall - Traffic Rules" added and in place (that are detailed above):

FYI: The "Smart Firewall" feature itself in Norton AV must be enabled in order to see any of the described failure problems, so if you don't enable that feature then the problem won't be seen, and you also likely won't need to add the  added to your "Smart Firewall - Traffic Rules", but I would suggest to add them in anyhow, because you never know what or who will re-enable that "Smart Firewall" feature in the future.

Useful Links

• Symantec Norton Anti-Virus app: Add Traffic rules and Program rules