I had a m4a file, when I doubleclicked it, just for laughs I told it to use the "Web service" to look up the appropriate file that supports the extention.

Well, ofc, it had to call Microsoft PW started blocking

Packet to "Microsoft Corp, Microsoft Asian Data Centers, ww..." ( 207.46.130.106 ) blocked. [protocol: TCP - src: 3520 / dst: 80]

and 1 other IP. Both resolved to shell.windows.com

I added that to my HOSTS file and no more call home.

dont know if you want to go as far as blocking Microsoft hostnames though

hxxp://shell.windows.com/fileassoc/0409/xml/redir.asp?Ext=m4a

I have a bunch of m$ links you might want to add to your hosts file. Just one question crosses my mind though .... what about the 99 % of people that use the m$ services ? Hotmail that doesn't work without the ads, MSN Messenger that doesn't connect...

Feel free to add them r00ted ... freedom of choice is something wonderfull and sometimes difficult to handle

Kim

yea I figured I'd just give the pointer. I can admit I've used that file extention web service. But now I just go straight to google and usually without even clicking a search result i can find what uses it.