Firewall and M$ Word question
- Thread starter powermac
- Start date
kenny
Registered
It's benign. I just ran this with ethereal running to check, and it's related to the anti-'piracy' check that Word runs at startup to ensure that there are no other copies of Word/Office running on the local network using the same regkeys. I've looked at the startup announcement (again, with ethereal) and it is different than the quit notification.
So, I think what's happening here is that at startup, if Word triggers other Office apps on the network, but they're not quit, they should be told when the "offending" copy quits so that they can continue normal operation. That appears to be exactly what's happening.
From a technical standpoint, what's being done is that a single UDP packet from your machine is being sent to the subnet broadcast address to port 2222. The payload for the packet is different for startup and shutdown, and appears to carry the regkey at startup and a simpler message including 'ABCDE' at shutdown. Because this is a subnet broadcast only, it will not pass beyond your router by design.
So, I think what's happening here is that at startup, if Word triggers other Office apps on the network, but they're not quit, they should be told when the "offending" copy quits so that they can continue normal operation. That appears to be exactly what's happening.
From a technical standpoint, what's being done is that a single UDP packet from your machine is being sent to the subnet broadcast address to port 2222. The payload for the packet is different for startup and shutdown, and appears to carry the regkey at startup and a simpler message including 'ABCDE' at shutdown. Because this is a subnet broadcast only, it will not pass beyond your router by design.