Is WinAmp v5 a Call Home Program

  • Thread starter Thread starter elephant
  • Start date Start date
E

elephant

I installed WinAmp v5 because so far it's the only program I can find
that will play streaming audio with a URL that starts with "uvox".

After playing around with what WinAmp will do, I decided to play a
video file that I have archieved on my hard drive. After the video
ended, my firewall came up asking if I wanted WinAmp to access the
internet.

That seemed a little strange, so I rebooted the computer and tried it
again. Sure enough, when the video file completed, my firewall asked if
I wanted WinAmp to access the internet.

Is WinAmp calling home and reporting what we are doing?
 
Go to Preferences>Setup.

Tick "no Internet connection available. Untick "check for new versions on
startup."
 
That seemed a little strange, so I rebooted the computer and tried it
again. Sure enough, when the video file completed, my firewall asked if
I wanted WinAmp to access the internet.

Is WinAmp calling home and reporting what we are doing?
Click to expand...
Only if you want it to. It access the internet in Media Library to
display info about the track you've selected in the bottom pane. As
well as that, it accesses a CDDB library and checks for updates. Unless
you filled in your e-mail and clicked send, nothing to identify you is
sent.
 
On 06 Aug 2005, elephant wrote
I installed WinAmp v5 because so far it's the only program I can
find that will play streaming audio with a URL that starts with
"uvox".

After playing around with what WinAmp will do, I decided to play a
video file that I have archieved on my hard drive. After the
video ended, my firewall came up asking if I wanted WinAmp to
access the internet.

That seemed a little strange, so I rebooted the computer and tried
it again. Sure enough, when the video file completed, my firewall
asked if I wanted WinAmp to access the internet.

Is WinAmp calling home and reporting what we are doing?
Click to expand...

As posted by elaich, the program's fairly upfront about this, and lets
you stop it through in "Options>Preferences>General Preferences".
(Untick the boxes for both "Check for new versions at startup" and
"Allow reporting of anonymous usage statistics".)
 
Harvey said:
As posted by elaich, the program's fairly upfront about this, and lets
you stop it through in "Options>Preferences>General Preferences".
(Untick the boxes for both "Check for new versions at startup" and
"Allow reporting of anonymous usage statistics".)
Click to expand...
Using Winamp 5.094
Ok, I have "Never connected to the internet" checked, "Allow anonymous
usage statistics" unchecked, "check for new version on startup"
unchecked (in both the general preferences and in the jump to file
preferences) I've been through every item on the list in preferences to
see if there was anything I missed. I have no plug-ins installed save
what came with the player and have even taken the time to check out each
one and use the "configure" button to see if any of those are set to
check for updates. Despite all this, I still have it trying to connect
to the internet when I exit it. Strange.

I can't figure it out. So I just told my firewall to rememeber my answer
and not to allow it. I'm not paranoid just annoyed that I have to jump
through so many hoops just to configure the thing.
 
Anti_Freak_Machine said:
Using Winamp 5.094
Ok, I have "Never connected to the internet" checked, "Allow anonymous
usage statistics" unchecked, "check for new version on startup"
unchecked (in both the general preferences and in the jump to file
preferences) I've been through every item on the list in preferences to
see if there was anything I missed. I have no plug-ins installed save
what came with the player and have even taken the time to check out each
one and use the "configure" button to see if any of those are set to
check for updates. Despite all this, I still have it trying to connect
to the internet when I exit it. Strange.

I can't figure it out. So I just told my firewall to rememeber my answer
and not to allow it. I'm not paranoid just annoyed that I have to jump
through so many hoops just to configure the thing.
Click to expand...
You are paranoid. If you weren't, you wouldn't have "jumped through the
hoops".
 
Conor said:
You are paranoid. If you weren't, you wouldn't have "jumped through the
hoops".
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can be funny like that. Anyway, I figured out what was making it
call home. Options > Preferences > Media Library > Online Media Tab >
Modify Preferences > Uncheck "Look for Online Media Channels on Exit"
So add that to the list of things to check or uncheck to make winamp not
try to call out.
 
-snip-

Anyway, I figured out what was making it call home. Options >
Preferences > Media Library > Online Media Tab > Modify
Preferences > Uncheck "Look for Online Media Channels on Exit" So
add that to the list of things to check or uncheck to make winamp
not try to call out.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for digging that one out. I don't have that check-box, so I
guess it came in between versions 5.09 (which I'm still on) and 5.094.
I'll remember it if I upgrade, though...
 
Anyway, I figured out what was making it call home. Options >
Thanks for digging that one out. I don't have that check-box, so I
guess it came in between versions 5.09 (which I'm still on) and 5.094.
I'll remember it if I upgrade, though...
Click to expand...

Well done !
I was just noticing the same issue and was a bit upset to the "call
home" feature after playing any mp3, i should be a bit paranoid, as
suggested before, but i don't like others (winamp) report my
business/music/video taste.

And finding that it was just the media library update on exit relaxed
me ^_^
 
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