GnuCash 2.1.2 directions

[Derek Atkins]

Wm Stewart <wstewart at livinginternet.com> writes:

>> I just installed my freshly built gnucash-2.2.1 on Centos-5.  While
>> installing gnucash-docs, it tries to contact xml DTD repositories.
>> Is that what is happening on windows?

I don't think so.  This has to do with Gconf/Orbit, not Gnucash
or GnuCash-docs.  I suspect that this would happen with ANY gtk+
application that installed gconf too.

> I honestly don't know, but don't think so, since this has to do with
> configuration settings.  I think someone smarter than me needs to find some
> Windows machines without gnucash installed, and run and trap the access as
> closely as possible, ideally to code that can be read.  When your firewall
> asks you whether to allow the external connection, the application freezes
> at that point until it gets a response - are there analyzers that could
> tell what code was running at that point?

Well, there's always 'gdb' to figure out where in the code you are.

> I'm concerned because there is no notification of the access and without a
> good external firewall most people would not know about it, and as per the
> bug trail if the external access is not allowed then the configuration
> settings and application aren't usable -- for example the installer will
> not work on Internet disconnected computers because the external
> communication is a requirement of operation.

I think it's unlikely to be a virus, although it's possible.  Can you
run a network analyzer and see what protocol the connection is making?
I'm wondering if the person who built the gconf or orbit package
somehow included their own IP address in the binary and therefore it's
trying to "phone home" in terms of trying to reconnect back to already
running gconf instances?

I just find this very very odd.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available