OT: Windows Update keeps tabs on all system software

[Hechler Family]

List,

Glad to see the word is finally getting around. I started monitoring MS 
meddling about 8 years ago and the first XP one that I heard of, was 
every DVD you watched on XP , it phoned home to MS to tell them what you 
just watched - sounds like invasion of privacy to me.

Another word of warning to all you IE (internet Explorer) users - in 
'98, I heard the story about how IE blocked and deleted, yes, deleted, 
your email before you even saw it. These were email greeting cards from 
Blue Mountain (Colorado) Internet Greeting Card service. Blue Mountain 
won the lawsuit, and it cam out that MS wanted to be first with this 
service so MS magically came out with an update to IE which did the 
blocking and deleting. *** You will never know when another update will 
break or meddle with your mail ***  Ever since then, I refuse to use IE 
and use Netscape (now Mozilla, the open source version) Remember, WebTV, 
MS did the same thing to the WebTV company (the name escapes me, too 
long ago)

As a last comment, this is why I switched to Linux and run windows only 
when and where I have to (ETD software, etc)

-- 
Duaine Hechler
Piano, Player Piano, Organ, Pump Organ
Tuning, Servicing & Rebuilding
Associate Member of the Piano Technicians Guild
Reed Organ Society Member
St. Louis, MO
(314) 838-5587
dahechler@charter.net



Jonathan Finger wrote:

>Ned, Windows and other MS programs do indeed phone home frequently.  A
>firewall is a great way to stop them.  Most of their communication is
>harmless though.  Windows XP does like to phone home and tell it's
>bosses what you've been doing though. :)  Again, XP is a great OS, and
>this problem is easily avoided with a decent firewall.  For the best
>protection, run an application based firewall to allow you to monitor
>communications in and out, and then a more powerful firewall program if
>needed.  In some instances, if you have sensitive business information,
>or a VPN, or some other reason that you really don't want intruders; it
>is easy to purchase a hardware firewall.  This way you can specify what
>ports can be accessed by which protocols.
>
>Jonathan Finger RPT
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
>Behalf Of Ned Swift
>Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 4:41 PM
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Re: OT: Windows Update keeps tabs on all system software
>
>When I got my cable modem, I was concerned about hackers.  While I had
>an 
>antivirus program, I read that hackers some times plant non viral
>programs 
>that attack other PCs.  And that the hackers especially like PCs with
>high 
>speed access.  So, I bought a firewall program.
>
>The firewall program allowed me to decide which programs get to access
>the 
>internet automatically, and which do not.  I was amazed at the number of
>
>time that the MS programs wanted to access the internet in a one hour 
>period.  They were very annoying and I finally denied them access to the
>
>Internet.  Prior to having the firewall, I would not have known that
>they 
>even accessed the internet.  FWIW
>
>Ned Swift
>Lowell, MI
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.  
>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>  
>