Marvin Milquetoast wrote:
> I've been noticing something odd lately. Whenever I play a music file
> using Windows Media Player 9, I see about a dozen connections opening
> up in my TCPView(which is program that acts as kind of real-time
> netstat).
>
> I've heard that Windows Media Player "calls home" if there's some kind
> of digital rights encoding in a given file, but I've never actually
> witnessed it before.
>
> Is there anything I can do within Windows Media Player to keep this
> from happening? I've considered using Winamp Player, but one thing I
> don't like about that software is that whenever I installed it in the
> past, I would end up with a "Winamp Agent" showing up on boot in
> msconfig. If that's not happening anymore, I may just switch
> completely to Winamp - unless they're allowing digital rights
> tracking as well.
>
> I would appreciate any suggestions....thanks in advance!
Yes, dump WMP, by all means. That thing sniffs a connection, and
it's as yappy as a gossipy neighbour.
Winamp is just fine, but I'd recommend an older version. I use a
pared-down 2.91, and it works great. Look around here:
http://www.winampheaven.net/newlook/oldversions2.htm
for one that suits you.
Like any program of that type, though, you just have to watch it
like a hawk during installation, and then get in and climb around in the
Options.
You can make sure that Winamp Agent is not enabled, and that it
doesn't go grabbing file types that you don't want it to use.
I'd also have a firewall configuration that required any media
program to ask permission to go out.
--
"Just watch what you're doing."
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