Hi everyone, I just got a chance to install version 1.300 and I like the mouse hover (Thanks Jason) anyway has anyone else noticed that Port Explorer shows its self as a hidden socket? I don't think of it as a problem, I just noticed it and thought I would point this out. Loki
Doesn't do that on my XP Pro system -- shows as a normal process. <shrug> Have you been through another boot since install? That might clear the confusion. Phil
You're welcome -- glad it worked. Ver 1.250 had a hard time deciding if my firewall was a system process or normal. So far, ver 1.300 has decided it is system. I guess it could change its mind -- might be female! Phil
Hi Phil, PE also showed my firewall as hidden most of the time on all versions until 1.300. So far it shows as a system socket . But Spyblocker is still a hidden socket. Loki
PE doesn't show up itself at all on my system; maybe windows version related? It never did in former versions either, so this makes me thinking of the windows versions.
Hi Jooske, It was only in the new version and using the mouse hover that this would show up. When I would hover the mouse over the PE icon in the system tray it would show 2 hidden and when I opened PE only 1 program would show as hidden. Then I would minimize PE again and 2 programs would be shown as hidden. So I thought PE is showing itself as hidden. But I must not have rebooted, now it shows the same as when it's open. I hope that's clear it was only me and not PE who had a Bug . Score one for software and me with a red face Loki
Loki, we must ber talking about two very different things. In the systray the sockets are mentioned hovering the mouse over it, as was requested and a nice idea, which indeed came in this version 1.300. In my case hovering shows 4 hidden and opening shows the same 4 hidden, so it is not PE itself, at least not in my case. I'm not talking about this though, i am talking about the processes and sockets shown in the GUI if you open that one: see the list of all displayed and tell me if you see any process with the PE icon in front of it and if so, if it is hidden or normal and if it had a ProcessID or a 0. If so, paste that PID in the Socket Spy, see how it is named in that list, and try to look at the packets, what is the description of it then. If you can't find the PID if it is not displayed there, you can find it in TDS > process lists and if you don't use TDS there are other tools like the often mentioned Faber Toys (www.faberbox.com) just to get that PID and get it into the Socket Spy. Looking forward to reactions. And don't forget to mention the windows version. I use win98se in my tests.
Hi Jooske, Sorry about my confusion . Hope this is what you're looking for, by the way i'm running on WinXP Pro. Sorry the screen shot should've been here. I've posted screen shots before but I must be having a bad day.
Hi Jooske, Forgot to say that PE does not show up in PE so I had to get the PID from Task Manager. Hey but at least I got the picture posted on my sixth try. Loki totally lost and confused
Hi Loki, Port Explorer goes "hidden" when you minimize to systray as you suspected. I guess I could tell it not to specifically list Port Explorer as a hidden socket when its minimized to tray but then it would be slightly inaccurate compared to other apps which are minimized to sys tray. Unfortunately there is no way (there are no official methods) I have found yet to determine what app has what systray icon, I have found some undocumented features to find the actual icons but not what app owns them.. I would probably have to do something with the sys tray process, like hook into the correct address or something similar. On Windows 9x systems you won't be able to see the Port Explorer socket due to the nature of Windows 9x not being able to map all sockets to a process, that is if there is even a Port Explorer socket on 9x. In reality there shouldn't be a Port Explorer socket since I don't create any sockets until you use the Whois utility, after which I close them all down. Its some "unknown" feature of Winsocks which gives your application a socket just by calling the Winsock startup function, as you will see a lot of other applications with it also. -Jason-
Thanks for the screenshot, in my win98 version it mixes with OE. Not nice eh? I have trouble posting images here as well, even small as 16k (like you might have seen in the "tucows thread" with the tippical cow rating victim image i posted there ) -- maybe i should search a moment the host is not occupied like i thought it was not on a sunday morning and few users on the board, but probably the host was full! During the "whois" or "look for update" i see "*system" sockets coming and closing in a few seconds, so i suppose that was PE then, but they don't come with PIDs ... The good part of this is it seems (proofs?) ports are closed immediately after use and we are locked tight again. Is this true?
Jooske, In XP you can see the PIDs & of course you can see when a socket is Established then Closed. I noticed that when usng the update feature, Sygate asks if I want to allow Proxomitron to access the internet through it's proxy port 8080 to check for updates, which when "Allowed" shows the connection established (both the Proxomitron & PE) then PE informs me that there is no update & the established sockets gracefully disappear. It is very nice to see these events as they happen & know you have control
Jason explained in the meantime after i was able to describe exactly what happens on my system (very interesting too, btw) it has to do with the windows version. Looking forward to putting some money aside to buy a new system beside this, but not sure when so i'm patiently looking around and enjoying your stories. With all that i get some education in the meantime how to install and what to look at and what not to do, etc. I want double boot with at least XP and 2000 or ?? and keeping the win98 as it is etc egtc but it needs some time (and money)
