program trying to access gateway.messenger.hotmail.com

[drluggo]

I have just installed XP Pro on my machine. I connect to the internet through a LAN or through a phone line (depending where I am physically located.

When there is no connection to the internet, usually when I am at the dial in location and not connected, I get a message on my system:

"You (or a program) are trying to access gateway.messenger.hotmmail.com,... and it asks how I want to connect to the internet.

The message is generated in a Network Connectioons window and is extremely annoying. On my dial up connection setup, I have the firewall enabled, if that helps any.

I have closed all of my programs, so I know it is noe of them.

Does anybody know what service might be trying to accesss this web site or how I can find out?

 

[linney]

Check these Settings.

Modem Automatically Attempts to Establish a Dial-Up Connection When You Start Your Computer or Start a Program(Q316530).

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q316/5/30.asp

Also check see if there are any entries in your Scheduled Tasks folder.

If no luck, post the exact message (in full) you are getting.

 

[drluggo]

Thank You!!

My guess is that there was some program looking for automatic updates and instead of wating until I was connected, just decided it needed to be done right away.

Do you know how I can get some kind of inventory of all such programs just so I know what is running on my system at any given time? Ctrl+Alt+Del is not good enough for me because I do not know which processes might be trying to access the internet. Is there any place that I can look in the registry, or better yet, any freeware program?

I know it was not any of the Norton Antivirus stuff because it was still happening when I shut those down.

 

[linney]

What are you running that involves "gateway.messenger.hotmmail.com,... "? This is why any exact message would be of assistance.

Have you got a firewall and its logs to assist you. If you have XP's Firewall, I don't think that is able to show you who is trying to connect, it only does that for incoming calls (at the moment).

There are plenty of other firewalls around (some free) that will give you this information.

http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm#Comparative

http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm

http://www.garykessler.net/library/securityurl.html#firewall

 

[bcastner]

Are you sure you do not have MSN Messenger installed, and set to start at logon?

 

[drluggo]

The first program I removed when getting this message was Windows Messenger.

I cannot think of any other program that is trying to access this address.

The message itself does not tell me any more:

"You (or a program) is trying to acces gateway.messenger.hotmail.com. Select the Dial up connection you wish to use to connect. Then my only configured dialup connection is listed. The Title on the Message Box is Network connections.

I have not gotten the message since I disabled auto dial-up, so I assume that when the program requested, it was trying to auto dial and asking me to confirm.

I cannot figure out what program might be doing this since Messenger is not installed. I also shut down all applications, disabled all scheduled tasks, and shut down Nortion Internet security, NAV, Outlook, EVERYTHING.

Could it be as simple as Windows Update?

 

[bcastner]

"You (or a program) are trying to access gateway.messenger.hotmmail.com,... and it asks how I want to connect to the internet."

Lordy.

Restore back all you removed and permit the traffic through your firewall/gateway.

 

[drluggo]

All I removed was Windows Messenger, and I don't want it anyway.

Why wouldthe firewall settings affect it? It is not being denied the ability to acces the internet, it is just sensing that I am not connected and asking me how I want to connect. It does this every 2-3 minutes.

It does not happen when I am connected, therefore I believe that whatever program is requesting information from gateway.messenger.hotmail.com is getting it when I am connected and doesn't like it when I am not connected.

 

[linney]

See if these give you any idea of what was happening to you.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...Box+is+Network+connections&btnG=Google+Search

http://nscsysop.hypermart.net/no_chat.html

http://www.google.com/search?source...ay.messenger.hotmail.com"+network+connections

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q="gateway.messenger.hotmail.com"&spell=1