Mac mini M1 ethernet doesn't work after waking from sleep

I may have identified what causes this, I had Norton 360 running, removed it and the problem went away. I reinstalled it to test and the problem came back. A google on Norton suggested that the Norton firewall may be causing the problem. So I reinstalled Norton 360 and followed the Norton article, unfortunately the article didn’t fix it so I had to remove it again.

I say I may have identified the issue with caution because I originally set up my new Mac from a backup. I was preparing to send it back so reset to factory settings and reinstalled BigSur.

I gave it one last chance and signed in, no problems. So I reinstalled my apps and when I reinstalled Norton 360 the problem started again.

All I can say is that with Norton 360 network connections are dropped and I have to restart frequently. Without Norton 360 the Mac mini M1 with Big Sur fully patched up works trouble free. Not sure if this help, I know how frustrating it was - I very nearly returned the Mac Mini. I’m actually loving it now but this issue made it unusable. I can now drag and drop any file from the network to any other location without an issue. I’ve not raised with Norton yet but will - I’d prefer to have that extra layer of protection.