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KNOW WHICH PORTS ARE OPENED ON YOUR SYSTEM. THAT COULD SAVE YOUR DAY
Abruptly,
Skype client stop performing
on my system for SkypeIn and SkypeOut capacities.
Each time someone calls (computer-to-computer), the system hands or drops
in the middle of the conversation. The same if I try to use outbound connection
with either SkypeOut or computer-to-computer interconnection.
I was puzzled. Everything was looking fine the day before and for four years
and suddenly this trouble! I did everything possible to troubleshoot. I downgraded
the Skype client as I remembered having upgraded the day before. That changed
nothing.
So I left Skype to rest and start using more often other VoIP systems I have
installed: VoipBuster, Microsoft Live Messenger and Yahoo
Messenger. They
were performing well. So I decided to look at the ports opened by these utilities
to compare with Skype ones.
I noticed that Skype is the only one that uses
Port 80 (Options / Connections). But I do know that EasyPhp too
does use Port 80 for the Apache server and that I used to shut down Skype
in case I want to use EasyPhp to preview files created with DreamWeaver
Macromedia MX. So trying to use EasyPhp, I noticed that Port 80 is "occupied" by
an executable file: inetinfo.exe
Now I need to know which utility, application or service is linked to inetinfo.exe
I use two systems. One is configured with ZoneLabs' ZoneAlarm as firewall
and the other one with Personal Firewall from Lavasoft.de
The last one
has a menu / table that clearly lists the opened ports. But that was not
enough, as it does not list the applications involved and when said port
had been opened.
CurrPorts displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports
on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the
process that opened the port is also displayed, including the process name,
full path of the process, version information of the process (product name,
file description, and so on), the time that the process was created, and
the user that created it.
In addition, CurrPorts allows you to close unwanted TCP connections, kill
the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information
to HTML file , XML file, or to tab-delimited text file.
CurrPorts also automatically mark with pink color suspicious TCP/UDP ports
owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information
and icons)
So, now I know which application was conflicting on Port 80 with Skype or
EasyPhp: It was Internet Information Service, which as EasyPhp is also a
previewing utility to preview webpages before posting on on web server.
CurrPorts developers claimed that the client was capable of closing
unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports if one highlights
the line related to the port and right clicks on it and select "close" or
"Kill".
When I tried to close or kill the port opened by inetinfo.exe,
the client did not perform because it was a Microsoft' service.
The following attempt was also unsuccessful: CTL+ALT+DEL to access Windows
Task Manager and terminate the process of inetinfo.exe. No way!
Finally I succeed closing inetinfo.exe through this sequence: Control
panel / Add- Remove Programs /Add-Remove New Windows Component / Uncheck
Internet Information Service (ILS).
I
suppose that, CurrPorts handle better Ports opened by other non-Microsoft
applications. Anyway, CurrPorts had saved my life revealing the utilities
conflicting on port 80.
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