Host process for windows tasks

Hi all

First post

I am using AVG firewall and get a connection attempt from a process called "host process for windows tasks", IP address 65.55.22.252 :80.
I believe that is a Microsoft IP address but I could be wrong.

I read that this process is a general process and could be any app, is this true? I want to know how to find out which process or Application is trying to call out so I know weather or not to block it.

Can any application use this process or are they only Microsoft (Windows) processes.

Can anyone help me with this?

I am new to Windows I am mostly a Mac user but after installing Vista and now Windows 7 on my iMac using Boot Camp I am using Windows a lot

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

PS: On my Mac I could control what apps called home, what ports or servers they could connects to using rule. I am hopping the same or similar can be applied in Windows 7.

I used Little Snitch 2 on my Mac if anyone is interested.

Thanks for reading.

Probably a windows update check.

12eason said:

Probably a windows update check.

Is it possible another program is actually connecting using the "host process for windows tasks"?

I don't think so no, it would be a pretty well known vulnerability if that happened.

12eason said:

I don't think so no, it would be a pretty well known vulnerability if that happened.

Great to know, I guess I got the processes mixed up. I think I was thinking of svchost.exe

It is the same thing I think, but there are multiple levels of account permissions for services and hence multiple instances of svchost listed as processes. So a third party service can run under svchost, but it won't run as SYSTEM and won't present itself as a windows task to a firewall. That's afaik, but I admit I don't know the ins and outs.

eta; I'm quite surprised AVG doesn't have a built-in exception for the windows host thing. I remember back when firewalls were less user freindly they used to nag about it all the time, but devs started including exclusion lists for common processes and apps as a matter of course quite some time ago which stopped all that.