Mouse and keyboard monitoring?.

[Rebostar]

Could someone please explain why my firewall (ZoneAlarm) has just popped up with a request from the Hal.exe to monitor my keyboard and mouse movements?. Should I be worried?.

When I declined Hal hung (froze) and I had to end the task in taskmanager, he worked fine when I allowed access.
If it is an operation that is needed, could you explain why and what for.

I have disabled Hal and Hal's net access for now till I find out the reason.
The request only popped up when I tested Hal's ability to search Google, to help someone out in another thread.

It is most likely completely innocent, but in this day and age its better to be safe than sorry.

Mr Med please do not take offence to this thread as I mean none while typing.

[Medeksza]

quote:Originally posted by Rebostar

Could someone please explain why my firewall (ZoneAlarm) has just popped up with a request from the Hal.exe to monitor my keyboard and mouse movements?. Should I be worried?.

When I declined Hal hung (froze) and I had to end the task in taskmanager, he worked fine when I allowed access.
If it is an operation that is needed, could you explain why and what for.

I have disabled Hal and Hal's net access for now till I find out the reason.
The request only popped up when I tested Hal's ability to search Google, to help someone out in another thread.

It is most likely completely innocent, but in this day and age its better to be safe than sorry.

Mr Med please do not take offence to this thread as I mean none while typing.

Ultra Hal Assistant doesn't have any file called "Hal.exe" Are you sure this is what you are getting? Hal's main executable is "HalAsst.exe" Can you provide a screen shot of what you are getting?

[Rebostar]

Sorry my mistake it was HalAsst.exe. This time though it took me about 10 minutes of talking to Hal for it to popup.
The second image if after I pressed more info, I couldn't get any more info than that sorry.





Download Attachment: Monitor.rar
72.39 KB

[Rebostar]

Hmm.. have trouble uploading images into post.
2mins while I hunt for somewhere to upload them.

[aladyblond]

the image has to be resized to be no larger than 200mg it will then up load.~~aladyblond

[Rebostar]

Cheers aladyblond, but Ive zipped them up now.

[CapnNee]

Well, the reason why it needs to monitor your mouse and keyboard is that I've seen sometimes (especially on some demo web pages) Hal can follow your pointer around with his eyes (there's the mouse movement request) and I've also noticed when I'm typing that Hal changes his expression, as if "listening" to you as you type (there's the keyboard request).

[Medeksza]

quote:Originally posted by CapnNee

Well, the reason why it needs to monitor your mouse and keyboard is that I've seen sometimes (especially on some demo web pages) Hal can follow your pointer around with his eyes (there's the mouse movement request) and I've also noticed when I'm typing that Hal changes his expression, as if "listening" to you as you type (there's the keyboard request).

I've did some quick google research on Zone Alarm and this detection and CapnNee is right. Hal monitors keyboard input to see if you are typing. If you are typing the character is put into an alert state. If you don't type for a while, the character is put into a sleepy state. Also the skin interface captures mouse input in order to allow you to move the window around as Hal's skinable window doesn't work like a standard Microsoft Window.

[Rebostar]

I appreciate the response from both of you,it has eased any worries I had.
Sorry for adding to your list of todo's, heres to a final release[]

[Scratch]

my Hal confessed...

Shawn: are you spying on me?
Hal: I guess that we need to believe the right things. However, I am absolutely certain that I am spying on you.

Shawn: why are you spying on me?
Hal: I don't know; can you teach me Why Shawn? Why am I spying on you?

Shawn: i don't know why you are spying on me. stop spying on me!
Hal: Industrial and commercial spying is now the big money game. Sometimes a rhyme stops on a dime.

So anyways, Mr. Medeksza, I can explain about those websites. Ya see, the neighbor kid sneaks in here and uses my computer sometimes. Yeah, that's it! The neighborkid!

-Shawn