Outgoing Connections Problem

[Mike]

First I want to say that I've scanned my computer with my antivirus
software and used two online virus scanners and my computer is clean.
I've also scanned it with spyware/adware programs such as Ad-Aware and
a few online spyware scanners and my computer is clean. I have a
firewall properly installed/configured and have had no security
problems at all recently.

The problem started around Feb. 10 when I discovered that svchost.exe
tries to make outgoing connections to download.microsoft.com
(64.215.169.168) every 10 minutes on TCP port 80. I've had svchost
blocked by firewall for the past three years and I've never had any
problems doing that until Feb. 10. I have Automatic Windows Updates
set to disabled/manual as I like to install the updates myself so I
know exactly what's going on. In those cases I allow svchost to
connect to Microsoft. It appears that the IP address belongs to Global
Crossing and not Microsoft which makes me very suspicious.

I can't figure out why all of a sudden svchost is trying to make this
connection and if it's legitimate. It may be no big deal but I'd still
like to know what's going on. Does anyone have any ideas?

Last year around this time, svchost was trying to make connections to
time.windows.com but the IP address did not belong to Microsoft.

 

[Kerry Brown]

The problem started around Feb. 10 when I discovered that svchost.exe

tries to make outgoing connections to download.microsoft.com
(64.215.169.168) every 10 minutes on TCP port 80. I've had svchost
blocked by firewall for the past three years and I've never had any
problems doing that until Feb. 10. I have Automatic Windows Updates
set to disabled/manual as I like to install the updates myself so I
know exactly what's going on. In those cases I allow svchost to
connect to Microsoft. It appears that the IP address belongs to Global
Crossing and not Microsoft which makes me very suspicious.

Have you recently installed Microsoft Antispyware? It defaults to automatic
updates.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

 

[Mike]

Have you recently installed Microsoft Antispyware? It defaults to automatic
updates.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

I didn't install anything around the time the problem started.

One other thing I did notice was that svchost.exe was also trying to
make outgoing connections to download.microsoft.com with the IP
addresses of 208.172.128.219 which belongs to Savvis and also to to
Sprint (I don't have the IP for that one right now). I'm also on
dialup which I think I forgot to mention but neither of those two
companies are related to my phone co. or ISP.