TCP connections to port 445

[mbell]

I noticed after I installed SoftPhone, my PC started trying to establish connections to the CallManager server on port 445. According to some documents I read, port 445 has something to do with NetBIOS over IP on Win2k. I noticed that the Unity server establishes connections to port 445 to itself, both the loopback address and the NIC address. The common denominator seems to be the existence of a TSP driver, albeit a different one on each system. Why are these systems doing that?

[dgoodwin]

Not knowing the answer myself, I went to Google and typed "tcp port 445" and here is the first hit I got:

http://ntsecurity.nu/papers/port445/

[mbell]

I found this same link prior to posting this message but I am wondering what any of this would have to do with IP Telephony, as I would not think it would involve any Windows-based services over the network.

[dgoodwin]

It doesn't. But it's still running Windows 2000 Server. We don't disable Windows file sharing and other related services on our boxes. And in some cases, our products rely upon Windows services like NetBIOS naming, SMB sharing, etc. So that's why they are still showing up.