Wesley said:
I find that my firewall alerts me on occasion because a
program on my computer is trying to access the internet
and the alert message says "run DLL as an app is trying
to access the internet" and asked me if I want to allow
the communication. I am wondering what "run DLL as an
app" means and could allowing this communication be a
problem?
Microsoft’s “Run a DLL as an Appâ€. A DLL is a Dynamic Link Library. In
layman and [very] simplistic terms a DLL is a portion of a software program
which is only used by the main program as and when specific features of the
software are used by the end user (for instance the PRINT function in your
wordprocessor). The main advantage is that, using this technique,
programmers can develop software which does not end up gobbling up memory
through the whole program loading in one go, but which instead only uses
enough memory for the core functions of the program, with specific features,
implemented in separate DLL files, only loaded as and when the end-user
decides to use them (ie. The Print DLL will only be loaded into memory when
the end-user clicks on PRINT). Another advantage is that the software
developers can also have common features which they have implemented across a
range of their programs, implemented just the one time as a shared DLL which
is used by all that developer’s programs. RUNDLL and RUNDLL32 are the
Microsoft Windows programs that need to be used to load DLLs into memory so
that they can be used by specific programs or by Windows.
Recommendation :
First, note that RUNDLL.EXE only exists in Windows 95/98/ME, it does not
exist in Windows 2000/XP/2003 – its path is C:\Windows\Rundll.exe as shown
on the Tasks tab of The Ultimate Troubleshooter; anything else and you
have a virus (see below). RUNDLL and RUNDLL32 do not normally appear in the
Task List in Windows. In our experience they tend to appear only when you
are already having problems of some sort with your PC, or a particular DLL is
either misbehaving, is buggy, or is having problems, such as a Control Panel
applet hanging for example. If you see RUNDLL or RUNDLL32 in your Task
List persistently then you should be [slightly] worried (see below the
other entry for RUNDLL32) – make sure you have good and up‑to‑date antivirus
software, boot into Safe Mode, and run a full virus scan on your PC. If you
do not have a virus and see either in your Task List, simply leave it alone.
We are not sure as to the other times when the real RUNDLL or RUNDLL32 can
sometimes suddenly appear in the Task List, but you should leave them alone
in most cases provided, again, that you know you do not have a virus.
http://answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm