WinME internal use of ports?

I've been using Tiny Personal Firewall, AVG and Spybot S&D resident.

I keep seeing various programs that are part of Windows
attempting to access IP addresses and ports that
do not make sense to me.

One of the programs was an AVG file itself, but
trying to talk to some stange IP address when
nothing like that should have been taking place.
I suspect something has burrowed into AVG itself.
Has this sort of thing been known to happen?

Is the autochk program supposed
to talk to 255.255.255.255 to
request my own dynamic address?

My immediate question is this:

What programs should be accessing what
IP addresses?

Scandisk shouldn't have to access
any IP address over the web, right?

Are there ports internal to WinME that
are part of the normal functioning that
Tiny Personal Firewall needs to OK?

Is there still a "trial size" virus scanner out there
current enough to catch it if something has
burrowed past AVG?

If you do a Google search on the AVG file you see attempting to "phone
home", you will probably find out the reason behind it. Many apps are
looking for updates, reporting usage and 'phoning home' for various reasons.
Lexmark is bad about this and one must delve into an .ini file in order to
stop it.

I think you are simply seeing some 'normal' operation of these apps and not
something malicious. I really doubt that AVG has been comprimised. If it
bothers you, take it out and re-install. The other option would be to use
one of the online scans (at a reputable site........don't go to 'Bubba's Big
Bug Bruiser' or similar). There are some scan locations that like to tell
you that you have xxworm or xxtrojan, then try to sell you their full blown
program to get rid of it.....I suspect they load something onto your machine
to provide a false positive or simply lie about it!! This site reviews the
top 5 online scanners:
http://www.bestsecuritytips.com/xfse...ticleid+59.htm
.....choose your poison.
Heirloom, old and hate bugs

"Greegor" wrote in message
...
I've been using Tiny Personal Firewall, AVG and Spybot S&D resident.

I keep seeing various programs that are part of Windows
attempting to access IP addresses and ports that
do not make sense to me.

One of the programs was an AVG file itself, but
trying to talk to some stange IP address when
nothing like that should have been taking place.
I suspect something has burrowed into AVG itself.
Has this sort of thing been known to happen?

Is the autochk program supposed
to talk to 255.255.255.255 to
request my own dynamic address?

My immediate question is this:

What programs should be accessing what
IP addresses?

Scandisk shouldn't have to access
any IP address over the web, right?

Are there ports internal to WinME that
are part of the normal functioning that
Tiny Personal Firewall needs to OK?

Is there still a "trial size" virus scanner out there
current enough to catch it if something has
burrowed past AVG?

255.255.255.xxx is your subnet....not an ip addy

"Greegor" wrote in message
...
I've been using Tiny Personal Firewall, AVG and Spybot S&D resident.

I keep seeing various programs that are part of Windows
attempting to access IP addresses and ports that
do not make sense to me.

One of the programs was an AVG file itself, but
trying to talk to some stange IP address when
nothing like that should have been taking place.
I suspect something has burrowed into AVG itself.
Has this sort of thing been known to happen?

Is the autochk program supposed
to talk to 255.255.255.255 to
request my own dynamic address?

My immediate question is this:

What programs should be accessing what
IP addresses?

Scandisk shouldn't have to access
any IP address over the web, right?

Are there ports internal to WinME that
are part of the normal functioning that
Tiny Personal Firewall needs to OK?

Is there still a "trial size" virus scanner out there
current enough to catch it if something has
burrowed past AVG?