Zone Alarm warning about inetinfo.exe

ZA popped up a warning "Internet Information Services is trying to act as a server ". Do I want to Allow or Deny? The file identified is inetinfo.exe and it wants to access HTTP 0.0.0.0. I chose Deny. I cannot see any benefit in allowing this. Can anyone else?
I ran a search and learned that inetinfo.exe is in my C:\Windows\System32\INETSVR folder. I also checked its Properties. It would seem it is a legitimate MS file?

 

Hi Jim,

In looking for info, from what I'm reading, this process is used when running

Info from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Information_Server



http://pcpitstop.com/spycheck/swdetail.asp?ad=search&fn=Inetinfo.exe

Are you running a server? If not, it would seem to be an inappropriate process to be running, nevermind permitting it Server status.

While I have the folder INETSVR, its empty.

Regards - Charles

 

charlesvar--Thanks for the response.
To my knowledge, I am not running a server. Just a single PC with WinXP Pro SP2 and IE6.0 connected to Comcast.
I see that IIS Admin is starting automatically from Services. The description is "Allows administration of Web and FTP services through the Internet Information Services snap-in ". The executable is inetinfo.exe, and SMTP is one of the system components dependent on it.
One of the first things I do when I turn on my PC is check for email.
I am not aware of any adverse effects from having denied inetinfo.exe access as a Server. And I do not remember if I ever got the ZA popup before.

 

Hi Jim,

I think this is one of those Home/Pro differences.

There isn't a IIS Admin service line in Home.

Regards - Charles

 

You can uninstall IIS using add>remove programs (windows components). It's one of those things that's not installed by default. You aren't running an FTP server are you? I know you said you weren't running a server but sometimes one doesn't think of all the possibilities ya know. FTP would require it.

 

Zander--thanks for the advice. I do not run an FTP Server to my knowledge, though I sometimes download FTP files.
The thing that worried me about IIS Admin was that the Dependencies tab indicated that SMTP is one of the system components dependent on it.
I felt that meant I needed it to send email.
But I have now set IIS Admin to Disabled and have successfully sent email, so it would seem all is OK.

 

I don't have IIS installed on this puter (never have) and my email has always worked just fine. I'm not sure what that's about unless you've maybe got it turned around. Could it be that IIS depends on SMTP? I'd check it out here but, as I said, I don't have it installed.

 

Zander--The attached image may explain my concern. Disabling IIS Admin seems not to affect SMTP based on my experience in the last few hours, but that is not the way Microspeak reads.