I was doing my quarterly paranoia "netstat" and noticed:

TCP compu-xp:1158 h3.slysoft.com:http CLOSE_WAIT

I'm assuming AnyDVD is not spyware but why does it create this connection?
If it's only checking for a new software version at startup I would expect the session to age off but it doesn't. It's as if it keeps reusing the connection on a frequent basis. Frequently enough so as to not have to obtain a new source TCP port in this case always using source TCP port 1158.

So what is AnyDVD doing and does it absolutely require an internet connection to function?

J

I don't see why it would "require" an internet connection. If I were you I would just use a firewall to block it, and update manually.

Maybe James can stop in and tell us why the connection stays open.

AnyDVD connects to port 80 (http) for its automatic update check which is strongly recommended. Leave it on unless you want to check the slysoft website every day for a new version. It does only perform a http get to retrieve information, no data is sent so it cannot spy on you.
After checking AnyDVD closes the connection to the remote website. I have verified that it does, I checked it on my test machine.
I can see the CLOSE_WAIT state in netstat, I will look into this matter further. I don't believe that this does any harm, as the connection is in fact closed:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q137984

AnyDVD does not *require* an internet connection. AnyDVD will not try to connect, if no connection to the internet is currently open, it will never initiate a dial-in. The update check is running on idle task priority, it will never be stealing cpu cycles from other tasks. It was made as less intrusive as possible.
If you still don't want to use it, it can be disabled in the settings dialog. But again, it is highly recommended to have it enabled. In the end it will save you trouble.

Thanks for the response James.
Reading the MS document you referenced it seems a CLOSE WAIT should age off after about 4 minutes but in this case it doesn't.
Does that mean AnyDVD issues it's http get more frequently than once every four minutes to reuse the session?
J