Xnews Socket Problems with XP

[Bluuuue Rajah]

Lately, when I try open a second unsenet group with XNews, I've been
getting errors saying that a maximum of four sockets are allowed, even
though I don't have four open. Initially, I thought that this was a new XP
security feature to prevent a zombie from infecting my machine.

However, if I disconnect from the internet for a few hours, the problem
goes away, suggesting that my computer is botted, and that the extra
sockets are being used by the bots.

Yet I keep my NAV subscription current, so a bot shouldn't be able to
install itself. Is something happening here that I haven't considered, or
is a bot somehow getting past my NAV?

 

[John Wunderlich]

Lately, when I try open a second unsenet group with XNews, I've
been getting errors saying that a maximum of four sockets are
allowed, even though I don't have four open. Initially, I thought
that this was a new XP security feature to prevent a zombie from
infecting my machine.

However, if I disconnect from the internet for a few hours, the
problem goes away, suggesting that my computer is botted, and that
the extra sockets are being used by the bots.

Yet I keep my NAV subscription current, so a bot shouldn't be able
to install itself. Is something happening here that I haven't
considered, or is a bot somehow getting past my NAV?

It would help to have the exact error message and an idea of whether it
is Xnews's error or the NNTP Server's error. Xnews limits itself to 4
connections and some servers limit you to 4 connections. Sometimes
connections are not closed 'nicely' (ie aborted) and the server takes a
while to time-out the connection. Meanwhile it won't let you use that
connection. It is unlikely that you are having 'bot' problems.

This is not really a Windows problem. Try posting in
news.software.readers
with [Xnews] in the subject line.

HTH,
John

 

[Bluuuue Rajah]

Lately, when I try open a second unsenet group with XNews, I've
been getting errors saying that a maximum of four sockets are
allowed, even though I don't have four open. Initially, I thought
that this was a new XP security feature to prevent a zombie from
infecting my machine.

However, if I disconnect from the internet for a few hours, the
problem goes away, suggesting that my computer is botted, and that
the extra sockets are being used by the bots.

Yet I keep my NAV subscription current, so a bot shouldn't be able
to install itself. Is something happening here that I haven't
considered, or is a bot somehow getting past my NAV?

It would help to have the exact error message and an idea of whether
it is Xnews's error or the NNTP Server's error. Xnews limits itself
to 4 connections and some servers limit you to 4 connections.
Sometimes connections are not closed 'nicely' (ie aborted) and the
server takes a while to time-out the connection. Meanwhile it won't
let you use that connection. It is unlikely that you are having 'bot'
problems.

This is not really a Windows problem. Try posting in
news.software.readers
with [Xnews] in the subject line.

Thanks for the tip. That looks like a good group.