so I have noticed that before my firewall prog starts up that windows is sending lots of data before the startup is complete.....should I be concerned? are they collecting data I may not want them to have? is it perhaps another program doing this??
thanks yall
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Could you be anymore vague? What kind of data is it sending? where is it sending it to? What program is sending it? What version of windows do you have? What kind of firewall do you have? Is it doing it only at startup or is it trying to do it even after the firewall is running? Have you even tried to find any of this out for yourself?

Infinite

oh sorry, Data? i dont know I just see the send light on my modem go. where!? what!? no idea....:/
win98se
Zonealarm
during startup BEFORE ZA starts I see the send signal on my cable modem flashing(sending data)
yeah searched the net but came up w nada...

OK, be sure it is windows, to begin with.

Look at all the applications you have starting up w/ your OS. Could be a simple check from a program for an update. Or run NETSTAT -A from the command prompt and check to see where it is connecting.

Well, when windows first starts, it will, in most cases, be sending out DHCP discovers, as well as all the browser info (no, not a web browser). Hrm, windows may also be checking for updates (but I doubt it since you're running 98) and it could be trying to connect to mapped drives. There are more things it might be trying to do too.

Ya know what? Windows does all kinds of stuff on boot. I seriously doubt you have anything to worry about. If you are that worried, then get a good anti-virus program and check yourself out. I'm willing to bet that there is nothign there though, at least related to this.

Infinite