Avast checks some mysterious IP addresses....

[wanderer]

  Hello you all ! I think that Avast is a very good product and I don't have any reason to complain. But I  have a question. My Avast Home version is 4.5.549 and from time to time I can notice in the task tray the same icon I can see when the programme is checking the mail for viruses. When I roll the mouse pointer over the icon I can see an IP address, usually unknown. Can someone tell me why Avast is behaving this way, and what those IP's represent ?
Thank you in advance to whoever would reply.

[Eddy]

That is the IP of your email provider, unless you have some malware on your system which is trying to connect to some other mail provider.

[wanderer]

Hi, thank you for your post. I have performed a scan both with Spybot and Adaware, but they haven't found anyhting suspicious. According to your post, I can reasonably suppose that the IP address shown by Avast is my email provider. Yet, I can't explain why the icon appears even when I am NOT checking my email.
Does anyone have an idea ? Thank you again.

[Eddy]

Do you have you email client set to check mail every x minutes?
What OS are you using?
What email client?
What other security software are you using?
Using spam killers or something simulair?

Try typing the IP into your browsers address bar and see if it resolves to a website. Or look at http://www.dnsstuff.com/ to see who owns that IP

[wanderer]

Thank you for your patience.

Do you have you email client set to check mail every x minutes?
No. I have thought it might have been something similar, too, but this is not the case.

What OS are you using?
Win XP SP2 unfortunately

What email client?
Thunderbird 1.0 RC

What other security software are you using?
Firewall and content filtering software

Using spam killers or something similar?
No, apart from the junk mail controls already included in my email client.

Try typing the IP into your browsers address bar and see if it resolves to a website. Or look at http://www.dnsstuff.com/ to see who owns that IP
Already did, it says it's an address belonging to RIPE Network Coordination Centre. More probably ( I don't remember the exact address, and now it's not doing it anymore) it's a Dutch company of Internet services.

[DavidR]

Look in your firewall logs for the offending IPs and check them as mentioned before.

It could also be avast's auto update feature checking to see if there is an update available. It will only be there for a couple of seconds, if there is no update. If there is you get the pop-up to tell you there is an update available.

[Eddy]

Win XP SP2 unfortunately

Nothing wrong with that, and if you are not happy with it, what is stopping you form using Linux, FreeBSD or any other OS?

It could also be avast's auto update feature checking to see if there is an update available.

I doubt that is what he ment. I think the icon he is seeing is like a enveloppe with a blue light on it. Can you confirm this, Wanderer?

Already did, it says it's an address belonging to RIPE Network Coordination Centre.

Not likely it says that. Ripe is the one who checks to whom that IP belongs.

it's a Dutch company of Internet services.

If you want, send me the IP in a private message and I will have a look.

[wanderer]

Hi Eddy,
well maybe you haven't had the bad luck I had with Windows, so you are one of the very fewest who are happy with it. As long as it allows me to get my job done, then I am happy with it, too,  but the problem is that this doesn't happen very often....For the record, I also use Linux.

I doubt that is what he meant. I think the icon he is seeing is like a envelope with a blue light on it. Can you confirm this, Wanderer? Yes Eddy, you are right.

Not likely it says that. Ripe is the one who checks to whom that IP belongs.
It says exactly like this.

Also thanks to DavidR for the patience and help.