Apple - How to disable Apple Push Notification Service (apsd) which is trying to bypass firewalls

I figured out that I needed to enter the following in the terminal:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.apsd.plist

I did this already, and it seemed to fix the issue, but would love to know if this is the advisable way to solve the problem.

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Also, in case you want to enable the process afterwards, you can use this:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.apsd.plist

sources:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/launchctl.1.html

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/disabling-unnecessary-mac-osx-services/

Little Snitch is a means to solve this problem. It doesn't answer the original question (which is how to disable apsd from running), but it can solve this sort of problem, albeit in a bandaid way, that the author of the question has.

With Little Snitch in place it's one button click solution to never hear from apsd again...

Little snitch will only work for a little while. APSD will continue to try to connect to multiple ip addresses once you "deny" connection. I had to do it like 40 times, then when I thought everything was blocked it started doing it again a couple months later relentlessly. Turn the stupid process off.