using explorer.exe => svchost.exe establishes a webdav connection on a server

[ggo98]

Hello,

I have a really strange issue.
first of all, my notebook is not infected by viruses or worms I
believe, since it is behind a firewall, I did not installed cracked
stuff, nor visited "special" web sites. I basically use this machine to
work.
The OS is Windows XP Pro SP2.

now here's what I have:
When browsing on my C (local) drive, for some directories, I have
noticed some kind of "lag" => explorer.exe is not responsive for a few
seconds.

I have understood why: when opening some directories, svchost.exe
sometimes (often) attempts to establish an http connection (on port 80)
to several IP addresses (including one which matches another machine -
that I will call the "server" - on my small LAN) !

I have installed a trace tools + a web server on the "server", and I
got a result which looks like webdav commands. And of course, once the
svchost.exe on my machine could connect to "something" on the server,
navigating in the incriminated directories is fast (no more "lag").

Does anyone knows why navigating in some specific directories with
explorer.exe could cause this behavior of svchost.exe please ?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Kind regards,
olivier.

ps: I can post the trace or part of it if needed..

 

[ggo98]

Hello,

in case it could help someone, here's what I've found after more
investigation.
The "faulty" stuff is a service named "WebClient", which seems to be
related with web shares (WebDAV)
The problem has disapeared after disabling it.

Why the hell was that service was trying to establish those connections
!
if someone knows, I'm still interested to know the answer...

olivier.