Phoning home?

TimK · Post by **TimK** » 2005-01-31 05:22:23

Nisus Writer Express is trying to connect to:

<basic-argon.digdug.dreamhost.com> on TCP port 80

Why should it be doing this?

I'm going to refuse permission and see what happens

joao · Post by **joao** » 2005-01-31 08:47:19

My guess is it's looking for an updated version of the program.

You can turn this off in the General Preferences pane - at the bottom.

TimK · Post by **TimK** » 2005-01-31 16:38:47

I know that Nisus phones home to look for update. That is probably what it is doing, but I would have thought that it would go to the nisus.com domain. As far as I know, dreamhost is a commercial hosting domain. Why would nisus be using that?
I'm a bit concerned. Does anyone know for sure?

Post by **martin** » 2005-01-31 17:14:01

Dreamhost does indeed host nisus.com, so this is nothing to worry about.

The reason you see the dreamhost name is because dreamhost hosts several accounts on one server. Perhaps running through the list of steps involved would explain better:

1. Nisus Writer Express wants to look for updates on "www.nisus.com".
2. The domain name server (DNS) says that nisus.com has an IP address of "205.196.208.47".
3. Nisus Writer Express tries to connect to 205.196.208.47.
4. Your firewall sees that a connection to 205.196.208.47 is being made.
5. The firewall consults the DNS, which says the machine at 205.196.208.47 is called "basic-argon.digdug.dreamhost.com".

Hopefully this makes some sense.

TimK · Post by **TimK** » 2005-02-01 06:41:10

Makes enough sense. Thanks.