alert from MS AntiSpyware

[bobby t]

Hello, I was recently installing a 6 year old usb camera
to my notebook that is using XP Pro. My regular camera
broke and I needed to take a picture of something. I
plugged in the USB cable to my notebook and during the
driver installation process this report came up from the
MS AntiSpyware Program:
Winsock Layered Service Providers alert

A Layered Service Provider (LSP) has been added to your
system.
About Winsock Layered Service Providers: LSP (Layered
Service Provider) are important mechanisms that third-
party developers use to extend the functionality of
Windows networking. However, they are sometime also
manipulated by spyware, system hijackers, and other
potentially unwanted software. Spyware can use LSPs to
see all traffic being transported over your network
connection. You should use extreme caution when deleting
these objects. If they are removed improperly, you can
experience failure of some networking components,
including complete loss of Internet connectivity.
_____________

My question is did this permanantly change anything in my
computer? Is this something I should be concerned about?
Is this something I should reverse or try to correct?

Can I do a system restore and will it erase any of the
changes that were made?

Thank you. Have a nice day.

Bob

 

[Andre Da Costa]

To use Windows to rebuild the LSP configuration data

1. Log on to your computer with an account that is part of the
Administrators group.
2. Open a command prompt window. To do this, click Start, click Run, type
cmd, and click OK.

3. At the command prompt, type netsh Winsock reset and press ENTER.
4. When the Winsock reset is finished, The command window shows the
following message:
Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the machine in
order to complete the reset.
If you see this message, restart your machine.

If you are not logged in with an administrator group, you will receive the
following error message:
Unable to reset the Winsock Catalog. Access is denied.
If you receive this message, log off of your computer, and log on with an
account that is part of the Administrators group. Repeat steps 2-4.

5. After you restart your computer, see the KB article at
support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;892350 for more information.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

You did add something to your computer--that's what a driver install does.
Drivers are especially important, because they are fairly low-level and
timing sensitive. A poorly written driver can crash Windows. This is why
there is a warning when you attempt to install an unsigned driver--a signed
driver has past rigorous quality testing.

All that said, this purpose of the warning from Microsoft Antispyware is
just to make you aware that something has been added to your network stack.
Since you've just intentionally added something you wanted to your computer,
you know the source of the message, and can ignore it safely. If you had
just, for example, pressed <OK> to enter a website, and got this warning,
you might well have cause for alarm.

I wouldn't worry about it. Rather than using System Restore, I'd simply
uninstall whatever software the camera install has put in, once you are sure
you won't need it again.