Opera v8.52 // Why does it phone home?

Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.

Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?

I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
functionality, including many options.

Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.

Why@where.net wrote:
> Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
> phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
> blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
> connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
>
> Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?
>
> I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
> type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
> functionality, including many options.
>
> Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.

Could it be that it's checking for updates?

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

John Corliss <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in
news:122krvm2uh7f22c@corp.supernews.com:

> Why@where.net wrote:
>> Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began
>> a phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop
>> when blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow
>> the connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
>>
>> Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?
>>
>> I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of
>> its type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile
>> level of functionality, including many options.
>>
>> Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.
>
> Could it be that it's checking for updates?

Thought of that immediately, but does not seem likely, since there is no
initial defeat selection provided for its operation, as in most cases.

It seems more like a possible data transfer of some sort and it is quite
insistent on gaining initial access.

Just hopeful that someone here has sniffed it out, for verification.

Apart from this peculiarity, the [ad free] browser is most impressive.

>>> Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.
>> Could it be that it's checking for updates?

Probably it checks for updates to the browser.js file that is used to
fix broken websites.

http://www.opera.com/docs/browserjs/

Romain

--
Romain Petges
http://www.petges.com

In article <442a6283$0$15591$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net
>, Why@where.net writes
>
>Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
>phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
>blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
>connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
>
>Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?
>
>I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
>type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
>functionality, including many options.
>
>Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.
>
And me, there is no way to disable this behaviour in the GUI but you can
by a manual edit to opera.ini, see:
http://groups.google.com/group/oper...d/thread/faa8d6
c6f3295acf/38f0f85dd865f28b
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

On that special day, , (Why@where.net) said...

> Thought of that immediately, but does not seem likely, since there is no
> initial defeat selection provided for its operation, as in most cases.

Why, I've been informed several times by the browser, that there is an
update available, and asked whether I wanted to download it. I never
found anything suspicious about Opera.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

fred wrote:

> >Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
> >phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
> >blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
> >connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
> >Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?

1: It is a web browser, so it checks if it can access internet.
Tell your firewall that it is okay, so Opera can work as it should.

2: The Opera company wants a better statistics than is reported by web
servers. By a call home they know better how many have installed Opera.

3: The program simply checks if it is the latest version, and asks the
user if he wants to upgrade. It also shows a html page called first
start up, or something like that.


> >I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
> >type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
> >functionality, including many options.

When you start using Opera you should download and install a bunch of
skins.
You can do this from within Opera. When asked if you want to keep the
skin say yes, so you get a bunch installed which you can switch
between.
The Office 2003 skin is a minimalistic skin which is easy to interpret.

Remove a toolbar you do not need, to get more space. Add buttons as you
like to the toolbar you use.

> >Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.

The Opera company gives us the browser for free, so why worry about
that. If you really want to block it from calling opera.com you can set
up opera.com in your hosts list.


--
Roger J.

In article <1143659467.096846.190610@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com
>, Roger Johansson <roger4911@gmail.com> writes
>
>fred wrote:
>
>> >Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
>> >phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
>> >blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
>> >connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
>> >Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?
>
>1: It is a web browser, so it checks if it can access internet.
>Tell your firewall that it is okay, so Opera can work as it should.
>
>2: The Opera company wants a better statistics than is reported by web
>servers. By a call home they know better how many have installed Opera.
>
>3: The program simply checks if it is the latest version, and asks the
>user if he wants to upgrade. It also shows a html page called first
>start up, or something like that.
>
>
>> >I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
>> >type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
>> >functionality, including many options.
>
>When you start using Opera you should download and install a bunch of
>skins.
>You can do this from within Opera. When asked if you want to keep the
>skin say yes, so you get a bunch installed which you can switch
>between.
>The Office 2003 skin is a minimalistic skin which is easy to interpret.
>
>Remove a toolbar you do not need, to get more space. Add buttons as you
>like to the toolbar you use.
>
>> >Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.
>
>The Opera company gives us the browser for free, so why worry about
>that. If you really want to block it from calling opera.com you can set
>up opera.com in your hosts list.

You might want to sort your quoting out, I didn't say any of that.

But while we're here anyway, phoning home for _any_ reason that cannot
be turned off by an option in the GUI is unacceptable.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

On 29 Mar 2006 10:33:39 GMT, Why@where.net wrote:

>Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began a
>phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop when
>blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow the
>connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.

Opera 8.53 is the latest Opera version.

>Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?

There is no spy ware in the browser but when you first install Opera
it wants to connect to an Opera welcome page. When I install a new
Opera version I don't mind because I like to visit the welcome page to
read any new information about the latest installed Opera version.

>I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of its
>type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile level of
>functionality, including many options.
>
>Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.

After the first visit I go to Tools -> Preferences -> General tab and
in "Startup" alter the home page (startup page) to how *I* want it.
--

Ian [Ando]

Why@where.net wrote:
> John Corliss <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in
> news:122krvm2uh7f22c@corp.supernews.com:
>
>> Why@where.net wrote:
>>> Plugged in Opera since it is now really free and it immediately began
>>> a phone home (hopefully *home*, that is) process which did not stop
>>> when blocked, or quit through software setup. It forces you to allow
>>> the connection and the *exchange*, before the browser will work.
>>>
>>> Anyone know what this *exchange* is for and what it does?
>>>
>>> I like the browser well enough, as it is the smallest footprint of
>>> its type (about 5Mb) that I have yet used and has a highly versatile
>>> level of functionality, including many options.
>>>
>>> Still, the phone home thing (without warning) bothers me a bit.
>> Could it be that it's checking for updates?
>
> Thought of that immediately, but does not seem likely, since there is no
> initial defeat selection provided for its operation, as in most cases.
>
> It seems more like a possible data transfer of some sort and it is quite
> insistent on gaining initial access.
>
> Just hopeful that someone here has sniffed it out, for verification.
>
> Apart from this peculiarity, the [ad free] browser is most impressive.

Then I wonder if Opera does live feeds. For a long time, I wondered why
Firefox was calling out until I traced where it was calling to and
discovered that it was a live feed server (totally harmless, and in fact
desireable.)

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.