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Why Does XP Auto-Connect to sa.windows.com?
termigator asks: "I have a private home network that has a Windows XP system on it (I know, the horrors, but it allows my wife to do some of her work at home). With recent discussions about DRM and the Microsoft EULA (which allows Microsoft to autodownload software), I decided to block all traffic on my Linux firewall from Microsoft systems (207.46.0.0/16) to the Windows XP box. This morning there was trapped traffic from Microsoft, after my wife was doing some work on the XP system the day before. I talked with my wife, and I could not determine what she could have done to cause the traffic to happen. Can anybody provide some insight?" Why can't Microsoft be up front about when it tries to phone home? Of course, phoning home isn't the big problem with most people, it's the fact that they try to be sneaky about it for certain tasks. With Microsoft pushing XP into the home, consumers should definitely be wary about storing private information on such systems until Microsoft provides some answers.
"Here is the logwatch summary:
Port 1053 is 'remote-as' and port 1054 is 'brvread'. I am guessing that the remote-as is related to the Remote Assistant feature in XP, but I've had no luck on finding any technical information about brvread via a Google search."Rejected packets from sa.windows.com (207.46.226.40). Port 1053 (tcp,eth0,output): 4 packet(s). Port 1054 (tcp,eth0,output): 4 packet(s). Total of 8 packet(s).
The last sentence is:
I am guessing that the remote-as is related to the Remote Assistant feature in XP, but I've had no luck on finding any technical information about brvread via a Google search.
A Google search of my own for "brvread" reveals no information in the first few pages other than that port 1054 is assigned to brvread for either TCP or UDP.
Not only have you proved that you are a karma whore by racing to be the first to post a bunch of Google hits based on only the headline of the article; you have also utterly failed to answer the actual question, since searching within the results of your search for "brvread" returns nothing! Not even a single hit!
You have, of course, been moderated up, because none of the moderators bothered to read the article either. It is fortunate for you that you did not engage in any cut and paste, as that would have revealed to all your total lack of understanding of the question posed.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I hate Micro$not products. Windows SUCKS.
I provide tech support for quite a few people so I have to run a number of M$ machines here with variuous versions of WinBlows (98 through XP)
I am TRYING to migrate my own personal life to Linux but for now, M$ still owns my soul.
I have one customer with 12 stand alone machines and I'm installing a LAN/switch/router to get them all on broadband. There is a nightmarish hell of WinBlows there, all sorts of mucked up 95 machines, 98, ME, etc..
The customer just ordered a new machine from Dell (ugh! tech support MORONS!) and get this.
1. The ONLY OS they sell a machine with is XP Home.
2. They pre-install XP Home at the factory.
3. They pre-install tons of other bullshit at the factory.
4. If you demand that they ship the machine with a BLANK hard drive and provide a CD with the OS on it rather than a factory "restore image" they won't do it.
I tried to explain to my customer that XP is SHIT (in a nice way of course) and that the purpose of XP is to give M$ a window into her world so they can peer in and spy on her.
"Oh, but the nice man at Dell told me that they fixed all the bugs and security flaws in XP with a Service Pack and there is no problem any more and that XP Home works just fine now."
Uh, ok. Whatever. It appears now that they are going to ship her computer "their way", pre-loaded with spyware and useless Dell bloatware.
I could smack the shit out of these dumbasses that shit there and jab a button so that a robot flash loads racks full of HDD's with total bullshit then they shove them down hapless consumer's throats. "We're here to help you!"
I live one city over from a place where they farm out tech support. This place is a total ghetto, they could have dropped a nuke and done less damage to this place than what poverty has done to it. Anyway, since there are no businesses left there anymore, some big tech support company came in and bought up a bunch of old abandonded shopping centers and they filled them up with phone banks then hired bunches of welfare rejects. You can drive by and see them all out smoking at the door, wearing rags and looking pretty much unclean in general.
These are the people that you get when you call Dell and Gateway tech support and some other large companies too.
Job interview:
Interviewer: "Have you any experiance with computers?"
Prospect: "I hocked a few last week"
Interviewer: "Hired, report to the front office on Monday."
These people read questions from a laminated card. I suppose it is a flow chart, I find it amazing that they can read for one, and that they can follow the logic of a flow chart.
I would not be suprised to find that M$ is using some of these places to browse through peoples systems. We know that M$ grabs snapshots of your registry which is the tell all. With only that one item M$ knows all your comings and goings.
M$ can and does grab copies of your email when they feel the urge. They have the computing power to scan your messages for key words that either hits their tripwires, RIAA & MPAA tripwires, and now PATRIOT ACT tripwires.
Micro$snot XP Home *IS* the PATRIOT ACT. If you use XP you *ARE* being spied upon. If you use WinBlows 9x you *ARE* being spied upon.
2000 ( http://nsa2.www.conxion.com/win2k/download.htm ) can be secured but you have to know what you are doing, it's not a job for Joe Average.
Even following the guidlines above is not enough, you must take your *OWN* steps to secure your system. Build your own firewall and build your own IPTables. Trust no one and no thing.
Your computer is *NOT* your friend.
Bottom line, if you have XP, reformat your hard drive with Linux. Build a hardware firewall.
If you have a Cisco router, dump it. Punks can hack them in seconds. And those dopey little routers they sell at Worst Buy, take it fishing, they make nice sinkers.
Just remember, Bill Gate$ is the Anti-Christ and Micro$not is the 7th level of HELL.
I don't know any way of replacing an entire registry with an exported text file.
I'm curious. Did you try searching the obvious?
Reading the rest of your response it's quite clear you are a fucking retard. I mean I could go on and explain how things work in more detail, but would it even matter? Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to listen? If you can't even search the obvious locations for answers to your questions, why should anybody waste their time with you?
I've been supporting and developing on Windows NT systems since 1996. I'm not going to claim to know it all, but I am extremely familiar with the registry and how the system interacts with it, and how it is connected to installed software.
The problem you are facing is simply that you don't know how it works, so therefore you condemn it as being bad.
Look, not everybody is knowledgeable about systems. It takes time and effort, and normally I'm fairly lenient when it comes to newbies who have a desire to learn and understand. But it really really bugs me to see people who clearly have no desire to learn, and show no technical competence go off trying to sound like an expert and offer advice.
I suggest you deal with your stupidity problem, and not bring it to Slashdot.
l 2= lets-argue.html
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