What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

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ddjjbb
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 May 2019 20:37

What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

Post by ddjjbb »

(Background: I am, for various good reasons, still running XY Version 13.60.
I am also running it on Windows-10, for what that's worth)

NEW OBSERVATION:
When I got a new-install of Wireshark on my work laptop, I can now easily see that when XY has already
been launched, and is otherwise sitting totally IDLE in my taskbar, that it is *walking each and every one
of my network drives and their sub-directory trees*, trying to perform a set of simple actions on each.

I'm guessing that XY is just trying to determine if I have 'write privs' in each network directory.
(Why XY thinks it should be doing this, I don't know)

BUT, it seems to me that could also be (falsely) seen as some kind of 'penetration test' by my corporate IT group.

In every sequential sub-directory of my mapped network drives, XY seems to be doing this sequence:

1) 'Create some File', -- and Wireshark tells me the complete network path to the file XY wants to create
The wireshark tool reports this by the following: (Protocol is always "SMB2")
"Create Request File: <network drive path><filename>"
Then this may be followed by a response from the server which is either 1a) or 1b)
1a) "Create Response , Error: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED..." -or-
1b) "Create Response File: <network drive path><filename> Response"

2) 'Find some File". (XY always gives a single one-character filename wildcard expression "*")
(I presume that XY wants to verify that the new file appears)
The server responds with a "File Response" packet of its own, but the data in the packet isn't easily decodable).

3) 'Close Request File' (and XY provides only the directory)
(I presume that this also flags the server to delete the file when it closes it)

Then the pattern REPEATS for the very next subdirectory on the network drive.
(and I can see that XY is mucking around in subdirectories of co-workers in which I have no business
fishing... or even looking...)

Anyway, I know that this is XY doing it, because it starts when I start XY, and stops when I kill XY.

So, to the ultimate question... Why the heck is XY doing this?

In all of my tests, this was observed when XY was totally idle (and didn't even have user-focus for a long time
beforehand)

Is there some configurable [X] checkbox (that is selected by default) to 'background cache the Network Drives'
or something?

Is this an 'internal feature' of XY?

Is this a thing which was 'fixed' in a later XY version (since my version, 13.60, was acquired?)

XY creates about 30-40 such network queries every second it is active. (not a ton, but still).

And my work laptop is blisteringly SLOW to begin with.

Any enlightenment would be hot.

-Thanks for any help provided

-Dave

highend
Posts: 13274
Joined: 06 Feb 2011 00:33

Re: What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

Post by highend »

- Does a fresh instance show the same behavior?
- Are the shares visible in the tree?
- Does any pane point to a folder on one of these shares?

Show a screenshot of what WireShark reports...
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ddjjbb
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 May 2019 20:37

Re: What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

Post by ddjjbb »

>> - Does a fresh instance show the same behavior?

Well, yesterday, when I closed XY and then re-opened XY, the behavior did not change.
Today, however, after a Laptop reboot, it does appear to behave differently.
It does NOT do this behavior (walking my network drives). UNTIL I direct
one pane or the other onto that network machine (and when I switch that pane back
to a local hard drive, it STOPs (!) )

One other clue... I remember that yesterday I was doing a SEARCH on that public machine, and
then CANCELED the search when I saw what I wanted [Esc key]. This was BEFORE I saw what
was happening in shark.
Maybe when you cancel a search, it doesn't *really* cancel it. It just finishes up quietly, and the user doesn't notice anyway, but it continues to navigate 100% thru all subdirectories anyhoo.

>> - Are the shares visible in the tree?

I hadn't thought of the tree, because I usually hide it (showing only one or two of the directory panes).
I * have several different drives mapped to
J: The TOPMOST (\share\) directory of the machine. and
K:/L:/M: Several of my favorite directories on that same machine, each about 6 directories lower than /share/...
(So, only my J: drive would have visibility to my co-worker's directories which branch immediately below the share\... level)
My J: Drive WAS visible in the tree (if the tree pane was made visible) but it was not selected.

>> - Does any pane point to a folder on one of these shares?

Again, yesterday I tested and witnessed the strange behavior for more than an hour before I came
to the forums. I killed and re-launched XY many times, where I both *did* and *didn't* have both Left and Right panes showing only local drives when I closed XY and re-launched it. In all cases yesterday, the weirdness remained.

>> Show a screenshot of what WireShark reports...

I did a few shark screencaps that continue to show the problem today, but cant immediately find a site to host the images. (stay tuned)

(BTW: it would be good if you guys made a simple "Test-It Here" forum just so newbies to phpBB
could see what the capabilities are, and where a meaningless post wont trigger anything )

-dave

ddjjbb
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 May 2019 20:37

Re: What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

Post by ddjjbb »

This is now a big ol' NEVERMIND !

It *IS* a 'Feature'

F9 | 'Features' (bottom of left pane) | [X] 'Network Server Caching'

(How I missed it before is my bad...)

YES, This checkbox toggles the noted behavior.

((why it's trying to do a 'Write-Test' is still a bit of a question tho...))

-Dave
(hangs head... big embarrassed... will shut up now)

admin
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Re: What is XY doing in the background. A Bug or a Feature?

Post by admin »

Are you still on 13.60? Might be time to try 20.00...

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