Quick overview:
Many problems and problem solutions on the Internet are related to the so-called SSDP search service. This causes high CPU-svchost.exe, opens security gaps under Windows XP or sends unknown data to the outside world. It is regularly advised in communities to deactivate it. Very few people know exactly what is behind this - Windows-Tweaks would like to shed more light on the matter:
The SSDP search service searches for so-called Universal Plug & Play-components (UPNP). In future, devices such as alarm systems, surveillance cameras, coffee machines, projectors, multimedia devices etc. will be networked with the PC via this UPNP protocol and controlled via it. Whether this will make sense in the future is another question, but this technology offers many interesting possibilities. The Simple Service Discovery Protocol - Search service is switched on by default in Windows XP and already (unnecessarily) searches for devices in this digital home network system.
SSDP is a Multicast-search service and is used to search for audio and video files via Streaming (live transmission) to the computer. This technology sends a multimedia file once to several groups on the Internet instead of sending it several times to each individual - intermediate servers help with this branching of the data. This IP6 process reduces the load that a server has to carry. However, as this technology is not yet widely used, it is recommended to deactivate the SSDP search service for the following reasons:
To deactivate the SSDP search service
1. If you have the UPNP patch from Microsoft, a foreign user can access your PC via an overflow of the UPNP memory buffer and execute various programs. programs.
Click on the following page for information on the other operating systems: MS Security Bulletin MS01-059
2. Many network cards and routers cannot yet cope with UPNP, so it is easily possible for IP addresses of network computers to be seen on the Internet. Open gates (ports) therefore invite hackers to transfer dangerous programs.
3. Both the service and the firewall, which has to log these UPNP packets, cause an unusually high CPU load, as it is constantly searching for such devices.
Switch off the SSDP search service as follows: Click on Start/Control Panel/Administration/Services and double-click on SSDP search service. Select under Start type the entry Deactivated.
NOTE FOR NEW PUBLICATION: This article was produced by Sandro Villinger and comes from the Windows Tweaks archive, which has been built up since the late 1990s.
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