Ondev Support Forum

Recently Zone Alarm has alerted me to Symantec Shared Component wishing to access the internet.  Is this part of the Symantec Anti-virus system, or is it an attempt to introduce a virus?  So far I have denied it.

I think it's just another bit of Symantec's Security Suite that needs to update itself via the Internet. Before you allow it though I'd like to check further and the answers to the following would help me.

• When you say you've denied it so far how long has it been asking for access? If it's only just started recently it is remotely possible that something has got into your computer and is pretending to be part of the Symantec program.
• Does everything else still run OK or have you noticed any programs running more slowly than normal?
• Does Internet Explorer take a long time to load or shutdown?
• Does Zone Alarm give you the name of the file - something.exe or something.dll? If so could you let me know the exact filename please?

1.  I could be wrong but I think I was asked for access quite a long time ago, however if that was the case it stopped and there were no alerts until about two weeks ago.

2.  The full details on the Zone Alarm alert are:
     App SS AutoRN.exe
     Designation IP 62.24.131.18:DNS

3.  It would be difficult to say whether Internet Explorere is taking a longer time to load or shut down than it used to.  Sometimes it seems to take ages to open, and then other times it seems quicker; shutting down time seems to be fairly constant.

4.  Sometimes it takes what seems a long time to open programmes, but sometimes it is "instant".

SSAutoRN.exe is definitely part of the Symantec stuff and it checks things on the Internet periodically although Symantec do not say exactly what is does (probably for security reasons). I think it's safe to allow it do what it wants in the interests of the Symantec Security Suite continuing to function efficiently. The variable time for programs opening is a fact of life - Windows just gets pre-occupied doing "housekeeping" sometimes. Unfortunately it can also be a symptom of a virus or other rogue program. I think you are pretty safe in this case.