WgaTray.exe and IP address 72.247.127.56 (DNS)

[Mark]

Today ZoneAlarm shows a pop-up window indicating that WgaTray.exe is
trying to access the Internet:

Identification: Not available in ZoneAlarm
Application: WgaTray.exe
Destination IP: 72.247.127.56NS

I looked up the IP address and it goes to:

C:\>nslookup 72.247.127.56
Name: a72-247-127-56.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
Address: 72.247.127.56

and http://cqcounter.com/whois/ shows:

OrgName: Akamai Technologies
OrgID: AKAMAI
Address: 8 Cambridge Center
City: Cambridge
StateProv: MA
PostalCode: 02142
Country: US

I clicked DENY in ZoneAlarm and Windows XP performance has greatly
improved including a significant decrease in network traffic.

Why would blocking WgaTray.exe cause this change?

 

[db]

http://www.google.com/search?q=WgaT...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

wga has always been a suspicious
program, eg, critical update, killswitch,
spyware, etc.... Only microsoft knows
for sure what it's true design was meant
to be.

however, there is a freeware called
"wga removal tool" that uninstalls it.

if i'm not mistaken, microsoft changed
it's strategy and instead checks to see
if the o.s. is genuine before downloading
o.s. updates from it's server.

- db
Today ZoneAlarm shows a pop-up window indicating that WgaTray.exe is
trying to access the Internet:

Identification: Not available in ZoneAlarm
Application: WgaTray.exe
Destination IP: 72.247.127.56NS

I looked up the IP address and it goes to:

C:\>nslookup 72.247.127.56
Name: a72-247-127-56.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
Address: 72.247.127.56

and http://cqcounter.com/whois/ shows:

OrgName: Akamai Technologies
OrgID: AKAMAI
Address: 8 Cambridge Center
City: Cambridge
StateProv: MA
PostalCode: 02142
Country: US

I clicked DENY in ZoneAlarm and Windows XP performance has greatly
improved including a significant decrease in network traffic.

Why would blocking WgaTray.exe cause this change?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

The Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications tool (WgaTray.exe &
wgalogon.dll), calls home and connects to Microsoft servers every two weeks.

Akamai Technologies is probably really MS.

"The Wall Street Journal today said that Akamai will operate four backup
directories for Microsoft's major sites to prevent outages."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_2001_Jan_29/ai_69670038

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In