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Sumatra PDF portable phones home(!)

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klsjdarta
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Sumatra PDF portable phones home(!)

as most mobile internet access (:here) is really expensive and next, establishing a connenction takes minutes (think of sitting in a moving non-ICE train...) at least these two are reason enough to KICK OFF SumatraPDF from portableapps.com(!)

No, I could NOT find any "settings" option as "[ ] automatic check for update".

klsjdarta
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Joined: 2008-12-13 04:00
do NOT USE sumatrapdf during online session, KICK SPYWARE!

CPORTS.EXE (sysinternals) reveals:
sumatrapdf.exe 0.9.3 opens a TCP connection:
local port 2222
remote port 80 (http) at 67.207.134.59 ALIAS 67-207-134-59.slicehost.net
using C:\WINDOWS\system32\WININET.dll

- KICK THIS SPYWARE! THIS YEAR! -

reepicheep
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Adobe Reader did (does?) the same thing

When Adobe Reader v6 came out there was a forore over it "phoning home" too. In their case it was related to the possibility of JavaScript embedded in PDF files. Can't remember now whether Adobe bowed to customer pressure or not by expunging this noxious feature.

But if SumatraPDF is open source someone should be able to find any section of code responsible for outgoing connections and excise it so that this problem is removed. Can't do that with Adobe Reader.

Tim Clark
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I can't speak for the latest version ...

I can't speak for the latest version, I'm currently using 8 at home, but it is fairly simple to disable autoupdate check in the Adobe Reader.

Just move this file: Updater.api
from here:
path\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\plug_ins
to here:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\Optional

Tim

Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?

reepicheep
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On the Mac, at least,

On the Mac, at least, changing any settings that allow Adobe to pry results in dialog boxes being displayed whenever a new PDF file is opened. (Elsewhere I've explained that I'm a Mac user who exploits portableApps.com to give me an environment similar to my own setup on clients' networks.)

John T. Haller
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Auto Update, Just Turn It Off

It's an auto-updater, just like nearly every app has these days. You can turn it off by clicking Help and then unchecking Enable Auto Update. It's not spyware. Please don't go making ridiculously wrong, unfounded accusations in the future.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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