netsession_mac using a lot of CPU. What is it? [closed]

Question

Quite often my computer gets hot and the CPU fan whirs loudly, when I'm not really doing anything demanding.

I can see a process netsession_mac_2fa687c which is using 78% of CPU.

What is that process and is it safe to kill it?

Answer 1

I also had this process running. Killed it, but it was coming back automatically. It is part of the Akamai download manager used by Adobe products.

You can uninstall it using the "Akamai NetSession Uninstaller" in /programs/akamai

Adobe says it's safe to uninstall: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/847373

Answer 2

This process belongs to the Akamai Netsession Client.

http://www.akamai.com/html/misc/akamai_client/netsession_interface_faq.html

Akamai is a service used by web applications (eg. NFL.com) to improve download speeds of large files (like video). It's a legitimate service not spyware. It doesn't monitor web traffic. On NFL.com, it enables viewers to view high quality video because those files are larger.

It is often installed with other products (as far as I know some Adobe products will install this on the site).

In your case it may have been that you accessed a file (like a video or a large download) that required this plugin.