• Re: Should Firewall "Allow" Generic Host Process for Win32? - Viewer Re

    From corky@here.now.com@21:1/5 to corky@here.now.com on Wed Nov 2 07:47:15 2022
    On Wed, 02 Nov 2022 07:31:46 -0600, corky@here.now.com wrote:

    On Wed, 02 Nov 2022 07:14:56 -0600, corky@here.now.com wrote:

    On Wed, 02 Nov 2022 06:40:16 -0600, corky@mulkins.org wrote:

    On Wed, 2 Nov 2022 06:41:23 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    On 11/2/2022 6:19 AM, corky@here.now.com wrote:
    My Sygate 5.6 firewall is "allowing" Generic Host Process for Win32. >>>>> Is this the correct setting? I have no idea what the "Process" is,
    nor do I really care. I just noticed it while resetting a few other >>>>> simpler settings in Sygate.

    I checked with GRC.com. All my XP ports are Stealth - for what that's >>>>> worth. I do run the simpler XP firewall at the same time as the
    Sygate.

    I caused a few problems with my firewall, that's why I was drubbing
    around inside it. I had to straighten a few things out.


    When you run Firefox, it is listed as Firefox in Task Manager.

    If the OS uses "rundll" to operate a DLL, then the Task Manager >>>>displays "rundll" instead of the name of the DLL itself. This might >>>>make it harder for an outgoing firewall to determine whether
    it needs to be blocked or not.

    A "svchost" might be more of what they had in mind. A svchost can
    host sixteen items, and some of those items could be network-oriented.

    On WinXP Pro, you can use "tasklist /svc" to see the names of the >>>>entries inside a svchost. A tool such as Sysinternals Process Explorer, >>>>when you run it as administrator, can also ferret out the details
    of a svchost.

    Paul

    Well, the thing was marked "Ask", and since I never remember that
    process asking for "Allowance" at any time, I blocked it. So far, it >>>ain't complaining.

    Don't even get into that svchost stuff. Sygate's full of those. I
    don't even want to look them up to see what they are.

    By now, you're probably asking yourself, if he doesn't know nor care
    what most of that crapola is, why is he screwing with it? You're
    right. I've been asking myself that for the last few hours.

    Well -

    The Service Host process (svchost.exe) is a shell for loading services
    from DLL files. Services are organized into groups, and each group is
    run inside a different instance of the Service Host Process. There are >>usually many instances of svchost.exe running because Windows requires >>numerous services to operate correctly.

    Page explaining it even in more detail:

    What Is the Service Host Process (svchost.exe) and Why Are So Many
    Running?
    https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

    Walter Glenn @wjglenn | ? Reviewed By Nick Lewis

    Updated Oct 21, 2022, 10:18 am EDT | 4 min read

    SVChost Viewer I found here: >https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/SVChost-Viewer.shtml#download


    Developer's Description
    By ShoXDK
    Svchost Viewer is a program to see what all those svchost.exe are
    running. The software program scans all svchost processes that are
    currently running on the system and displays them in a tree view. This
    tree view can be expanded to show additional information and the
    services that are run under each svchost entry.
    Windows, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
    Additional Requirements Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0


    More on the viewer: Svchost Viewer review
    Martin Brinkmann
    Aug 29, 2008
    Updated • Oct 14, 2019

    https://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/29/svchost-viewer/

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