GBPVR keeping internet connections open?

[HarryH3]

I've been watching my network closely lately, as I'm getting random download bursts every few minutes, for no apparent reason. I grabbed a tool called Port Reporter from the Microsoft website and found that GBPVR has a few connections out to the outside world:

PID Port Local IP State Remote IPort
3724 TCP 5906 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3724 TCP 8337 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3724 TCP 3541 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 65.207.183.11:80
3724 TCP 3543 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 65.207.183.11:80
3724 TCP 3760 192.168.1.100 LAST ACK 168.143.241.64:80
3724 TCP 3762 192.168.1.100 SYN SENT 8.12.216.124:80
3888 TCP 3020 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 65.212.121.121:80
3888 TCP 3022 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 65.212.121.121:80
3888 TCP 3223 192.168.1.100 LAST ACK 66.77.68.9:80
3888 TCP 3226 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 66.77.68.9:80
3888 TCP 3227 192.168.1.100 SYN SENT 8.12.216.124:80

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Are these links to the outside world required to stream video over my LAN or has my copy of GBPVR been hijacked? (I'm still running v99.12)

Thanks!

[HarryH3]

Argh!!! The columns looked quite nice in the preview window.

[HarryH3]

I just spotted a couple of more IP's associated with GBPVR:

PID Port Local IP State Remote IPort
3888 TCP 5907 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3888 TCP 8338 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3888 TCP 4180 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 63.111.24.75:80
3888 TCP 4181 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 63.111.24.75:80
3888 TCP 4214 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 216.207.67.136:80
3888 TCP 4215 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 216.207.67.136:80

[ACTCMS]

I just spotted a couple of more IP's associated with GBPVR:

PID Port Local IP State Remote IPort
3888 TCP 5907 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3888 TCP 8338 0.0.0.0 LISTENING 0.0.0.0
3888 TCP 4180 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 63.111.24.75:80
3888 TCP 4181 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 63.111.24.75:80
3888 TCP 4214 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 216.207.67.136:80
3888 TCP 4215 192.168.1.100 ESTABLISHED 216.207.67.136:80

Most of these IP addresses seem to point to http://www.weather.com/ Have you got any widgets or stuff telling you what the weather is?

[sub]

I'm with ACTCMS on this one. It looks like the weather plugin retrieving periodic weather updates, or something similiar.

[HarryH3]

I installed the weather plugin ages ago, but it's been disabled in the config for a year or more,as it doesn't have weather for the area I live in now. I'll uninstall it and see if my net traffic drops off.

[HarryH3]

Uninstalling the weather plugin stopped the download bursts. I thought that the plugin pulled data from msnbc.com, but perhaps there was some stuff left over from the days when it pulled from weather.com. Leaving it unchecked in config didn't make a difference, other than leaving that item off the menu in GBPVR. I feel better now, knowing that I've exorcised at least one ghost in the machine...

Thanks!

[Jeff]

The plug-in pulls the forecast from MSNBC, but some of the maps come from weather.com. You can control how often the plug-in auto-updates (i.e., goes out to the Internet to fetch new information) via the config app. I've made a change in the next version of the plug-in to cause it to not do any initialization if it is not enabled in the GBPVR menu. Currently it sets up the timers to do weather forecast downloads even if is disabled.

Jeff

[HarryH3]

Aha! So it was working as designed. I had stopped using it because the list of available cities via msnbc.com is very limited in the US. The closest weather forecast it would provide for me is about 150 miles away. It didn't dawn on me that it was still running since I had it "disabled" in the config app.

[Jeff]

You are only limited to the list of cities when you add a city via the plug-in's UI when running on GBPVR. If you are in the US you should be able to enter your ZIP code in the config app and get your actual city. What is you zip code?

Jeff