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Re: MathKernel access Internet?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg39626] Re: [mg39565] MathKernel access Internet?
• From: John Fultz <jfultz at wolfram.com>
• Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 02:43:43 -0500 (EST)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

No, it shouldn't.  There is some code in Mathematica that accesses the 
network for support of the license manager; it is possible that some of 
this code is being unnecessarily executed (most likely code which simply 
verifies the machine's IP address and/or hostname, or perhaps the code 
which initializes the Windows network libraries) and thus making spurious 
calls to the network.

I don't know what the IP address is you've listed, but I wouldn't be 
surprised if it's your own machine, your gateway, or your DNS server.  I'm 
curious whether you can simply suppress the communication via ZoneAlarm 
and still have Mathematica work.

We'll add some tests to run a single-user license Mathematica with 
ZoneAlarm on its strictest settings for future versions of Mathematica, 
but I'm afraid there's not much that can be done for you right now.

Sincerely,

John Fultz
jfultz at wolfram.com
User Interface Group
Wolfram Research, Inc.


On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 05:01:02 -0500 (EST), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>Should MathKernel in Mathematica 4.2.1 be attempting to access the
>Internet?  Whenever I start the kernel, my software firewall ZoneAlarm
>Pro reports that MathKernel.exe is trying to access IP 63.240.76.19:DNS.
>
>This is a single-user installation (not one running against license
>manager on a network) running under Windows XP.