"Windows Explorer is attempting to access the internet"

antares

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My firewall displays the security alert as shown in the title of this thread. It refers to the process C:\Windows\explorer.exe . Why would Windows Explorer need to access the internet? Is it safe to set the firewall to allow explorer.exe access the internet? Thanks
 
Not sure, you may want to go to the Norton Support Forums to see if others have this issue.
 
It's not a Norton issue. Any firewall worth their salt will report that. As well svchost.exe and System (pid 4)

Explorer is a user level process so practically any other project can inject into it and pretend it's explorer accessing the internet.
BHO's do this natively, since Explorer loads them into itself automatically.

Open Process Explorer, highlight Explorer.exe and hit Ctrl+L to bring up the lower pane view. Look for anything that is listed as Process or Thread. Some can obfuscate their origin as mutants, semaphores or show up as sections if they use IPC through named pipes.
 
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