Dave Rowell said:
Installed Cobian BU this morning. Installed it as an application to run
on demand (I have a very low trust level!) but it self-started anyway.
Then it signed on to the internet and proceeded to upload and download a
very significant quantity of data before I managed to kill it. Not only
did it want to access the internet but also act as a server! It planted a
few tracking cookies and a pop-up ap. Uninstall went quickly but left
quite a few registry entries and a folder full of nonspecific stuff.
To me it acts like malware and I wouldn't recommend it to an enemy!
I agree on the low trust level, I too have problems with what some programs
do from time to time.
Did you read the author's FAQ page available for this program at
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup_faq.htm?
One excerpt from the FAQ is listed below for you that you might find
interesting.
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Q: My firewall says that Cobian Backup is accessing the network? Why?
Cobian Backup needs TCP/IP to communicate between its different parts. It
doesn't need to access the internet (only for Live update). It only needs to
access the local host (127.0.0.1) Some firewalls block even the access to
the local host, which is pretty stupid if you ask me. If the user interface
says that the engine is not found, check if your firewall is blocking it and
unblock the program. 127.0.0.1 is a special address that points to your
local machine, so the program is actually not trying to access to any
address outside your computer. If you are paranoid about accessing the
internet like some users I know, just block the program (both the engine and
the interface), but leave the access to 127.0.0.1 free.
Some firewalls (Zone Alarm comes to mind) do not block the communication
between your own machine, but their tray icon blinks all the time. Other
firewalls like Sygate are smart enough and do not signalize an internal
communication.
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Yes as mike555 mentions, you can turn off the automatic search for updates.
Mine was off and it was not until your message that I was aware of a newer
version. Mine was running version 7.0.1.275 but I'm currently downloading
the newer version.
To turn off the Automatic Update Checker (as in ET no phone home...)
From the main Cobian menu go to Tools,
then Options,
then the General,
and last make sure the box for "Automatically Check for Updates" is empty.
I run Zone Alarm and it does report network activity when I run the program
BUT in the past I have plugged in an Ethernet sniffer to check on it. With
the Automatic Update Checker option turned off it only saw the program
access 127.0.0.1, which goes nowhere outside your computer.
