C4U Spyware Issues

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jason

C4U Spyware Issues

I did a Google and found that there were spyware concerns with C4U, but I'm
not clear what they are. Am I to assume the program phones home? If so,
how often? And is there a way to prevent that from happening -- like
blocking a particular IP address? I'm using v1.3 build 164. Thanks for
any help you can provide.
 
jason said:
I did a Google and found that there were spyware concerns with C4U, but I'm
not clear what they are. Am I to assume the program phones home? If so,
how often? And is there a way to prevent that from happening -- like
blocking a particular IP address? I'm using v1.3 build 164. Thanks for
any help you can provide.
Click to expand...

This was discussed here a few months ago, and after a bit of fuss <g>
I proclaimed that it did not phone home.
I was wrong and was being newbie with my firewall.

C4U (your build) phones home when a site is checked. It phones:

www.2c4u.com 216.157.146.64 on port 15174.

I don't know why, and it canot be turned off within the app, and yet
it is not consisitent. I think this was discussed here fully a couple
of years back but I don't know how this went.
 
I was wrong and was being newbie with my firewall.
C4U (your build) phones home when a site is checked. It phones:

www.2c4u.com 216.157.146.64 on port 15174.

I don't know why, and it canot be turned off within the app, and yet
it is not consisitent. I think this was discussed here fully a couple
of years back but I don't know how this went.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. That's really too bad. None of the other site checker
programs come even remotely close to doing the job.

Damn.

My firewall doesn't allow for the blocking of IPs, but I'll see if it works
by using the Hosts file...
 
jason said:
Thanks for the info. That's really too bad. None of the other site checker
programs come even remotely close to doing the job.

Damn.

My firewall doesn't allow for the blocking of IPs, but I'll see if it works
by using the Hosts file...
Click to expand...

C4U is very good at what it does. Notice, though, that the C4U web
site no longer exists and the IP address goes somewhere inane :-)

Notice also that there are better FWs than ZA...
 
This was discussed here a few months ago, and after a bit of fuss
<g> I proclaimed that it did not phone home.
I was wrong and was being newbie with my firewall.

C4U (your build) phones home when a site is checked. It phones:

www.2c4u.com 216.157.146.64 on port 15174.
Click to expand...

I just tried to connect there on that port, and the connection was
actively refused.
I don't know why, and it canot be turned off within the app, and
yet it is not consisitent. I think this was discussed here fully a
couple of years back but I don't know how this went.
Click to expand...

It was discussed, and putting it on the PL was ruled out because the
phoning home could not be disabled within the app. Since then, the
company which made C4U seems to have disappeared, and other people now
own the domain(s)[1] that the app tries to phone. Other than what
sites the user is watching, I don't know what info the app tries to
send; the EULA was pretty broad in what the user had to agree to
sending, and I don't recall anybody analyzing it with a packet
sniffer.

[1] I thought there were more than one domain/IP it tried to call,
but that may have been for other versions or ICBW. If I wanted to use
C4U (I don't), I would allow it to connect only to the sites I'd be
watching, blocking all other connections.
 
C4U is very good at what it does.
Click to expand...

Absolutely! No other site checkers even come close. I got exhausted
trying to reduce the false alarms from Webmon. It was just too much damn
effort.
Notice, though, that the C4U web
site no longer exists and the IP address goes somewhere inane :-)
Click to expand...

Yup, makes you wonder...
Notice also that there are better FWs than ZA...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've tried FWs with more tweakability, but settled for the easy one
to use. :)

I'll monitor the situation in Netstat and see what's what...
 
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