[Shotimes] Re: OT: XP OS? NIX.

[MonsieurBoo@aol.com]

While I don't think XT itself sends software info back to MicroSoft, it's 
amazing to see what the various MS products will try to do behind your back.  As 
soon as I installed my firewall it started popping up internet access requests 
from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SQL Server, etc, at the most unpredictable 
times that appeared to have zilch to do with the stuff I was working on at the 
moment.  (I'm not talking about things like cutting and pasting web pages into 
Word, of course.)

Without putting everything onto a stand-alone intranet and spoofing the 
destination IP that these apps are requesting, and logging their packets on a 
packet sniffer, I really haven't a clue what they're going out there for.  I have a 
sneaky suspicion they aren't just looking for any new code patches though!  
And without the firewall, I would never have known.

Needless to say I've set it to notify me whenever these requests are made, 
rather than just auto-suppressing them, so I can track the circumstances when 
they happen BEFORE Just Saying NO!  

PS - I chuckle a bit when I get pointed to such-and-such a URL for info about 
this stuff, and the URL has "support.microsoft.com" in it.  Those dudes spin 
it up faster than a Roots huffer on a fuelie.  Didn't see any mention of a 
hash file in their docs, yet it's the main player. <GRIN>

PPS - This old dawg thinks Leaded Supreme has a much preferable bouquet 
compared to unleaded, which is like possum puke if you ask me.  (If you ever catch 
a whiff of leaded avgas it'll take ya right back there.)  But then, I d/c'd 
the oil injector in my '76 Yammie RD400 just so I could run Castor Oil premixed 
for that classic aroma.  I'll save for another time the story about how I ran 
my scooter on Coleman Lantern Fuel to get over the mountains and home from the 
Hawaiian countryside one dark midnight when not a gas station was open, but 
the 7-11 was.

"I Love The Smell Of Nitro In The MORNING!!"
Mark L

==========================================
From: "Erik Balser" <masho95@charter.net>
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Re: OT:  XP OS?  NIX.

No, they don't tell you, but you can know what goes in and out from your
network.

----- Original Message -----
From: <bjshov8@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Re: OT: XP OS? NIX.

> You don't think they're going to TELL you what they're doing do you?
> :-)