Zone alarm detecting Spoolsv

[Mucky duck]

Using Avast home, on XP-home.
When I try and use updater, Zone Alarm Alerts me to the prog spoolsv.exe that tries to access the internet.  I have no printer attached or setup to this pc.
So I block it, and the updater stops, with a Server unavailable message.
Does Avast use the Generic-host-process-svchost also?
Once I know I can ask Zone alarm for their recommendend settings for this prog.

[Vlk]

Strange... as far as I know, avast! has absolutely nothing to do with the spooler.

Does Avast use the Generic-host-process-svchost also?

No. The process that avast uses to do the updates (i.e. connect [via standard HTTP] to our servers to do the update) is called 'avast.setup'. Many our users use firewalls (ZoneAlarm including) and creating an 'allow-rule' for this process is sufficient to make the updates work...

There must be some dependency between avast and the spoolsv on your machine. I can't see any reason for this, though - spoolsv is the print spooler, right?!  

Vlk

[Mucky duck]

So spoolsv is a mystery, I've told ZA to block it anyway, see what happens. I managed to print a small text doccy with it blocked, maybe its wearing a disguise (trojan?).

So what does it do - shall I rename it and see if something else stops working? Anyone any idea?
--------------     ----------
Yes, I get avast.setup when it updates, prog or iAVS.
Allowed by ZA when it asks me. Good.

Immediately after update, at the same time as the summary is displayed, I get the file setu000000ac.vpu
trying to access the internet (according to ZA). Is this the avast prog that displays our current version/update status?  I blocked it and everything looked ok, no error message etc.  Any idea?

[oudeman]

spoolserver is no mystery. see:

Black Viper's Windows XP Home and Professional Services Configurations:


http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

[Morc]

something spooky going on at Alwil... see my topic too...


Morc

[Mucky duck]

That's the spools bit sorted, thanks oudeman.

The plot thickens about setu000000ac.vpu?  Any idea anyone?