IE Contacting Servers

[NoelC]

Hi,

Recently on one of my Win 8.1 systems I spotted Internet Explorer contacting two Microsoft servers I didn't expect it to be communicating with:

• iecvlist.microsoft.com (even though "use compatibility list" is disabled)
• r20swj13mr.microsoft.com

The former is Microsoft's "compatibility view list" server, and apparently IE sends data to it even though this is set.  Why am I not surprised at yet another breach of privacy?

Anyone know what r20swj13mr.microsoft.com is used for?  I've blocked it and so far I see no downside.

-Noel

[351837]

1 hour ago, NoelC said:

Anyone know what r20swj13mr.microsoft.com is used for?

I don't know exactly what is used for. But i have fair collection of scripts and programs which bock telemetry and every single one of them adds that address in hosts file.

Hope it helps a bit.   

[NoelC]

Thanks.  I've blocked it similarly, with no apparent downside.

-Noel

[allen2]

Both servers seem to be used for the same purpose: the dns alias ie9comview.vo.msecnd.net is shown for both of them when you do a nslookup.

So as you disabled the check on IE side, both should not be contacted anymore.

Edited May 13, 2016 by allen2
fixed typo

[NoelC]

Right, but they are contacted nonetheless.  Hence the block by entries in the hosts file.

# Unwanted Microsoft site contacts from IE

0.0.0.0  iecvlist.microsoft.com                 # Compatibility view list, contacted even though deconfigured
0.0.0.0  r20swj13mr.microsoft.com               # Unknown why this is contacted by IE

-Noel