Incoming Connections

Under Network Connections, there is an icon for Incoming Connections.
Where did it come from? What is it for? How do we get rid of it?

Background -
We have a Windows domain with 2 Domain Controllers running Windows
Server 2003, and 200+ workstations running Windows XP, with all but
a dozen laptops having fixed IP addresses. We have been running in
this mode for a couple of years. A month or so ago, I was informed
that our DHCP server (running on a Unix box) had run out of IP
addresses, and the cause appeared to be that the Windows Incoming
Connections were requesting IP addresses on many machines. The
questions were: (1) What are Incoming Connections and why are they
appearing on all out workstations? (2) Were they always there and
just not causing any problem? (3) Why did this problem suddenly
start? (4) How do we get rid of the problem?

Two of us diligently searched the web and the Microsoft pages for
answers. All we could find were instructions on how to turn ON
Internet Connections, but never anything about how to turn them
OFF. We never did anything to explicitly turn them ON, so how did
it happen?

We have tried going to each machine and deleting the Incoming
Connections, but they keep coming back (poltergeists?).

How do we get rid of this problem? It would be desirable to be able
to do it with Group Policy, instead of having to visit every machine,
but I'll take what I can get. Also, what caused it in the first place?

Thank you for any insight and/or help.

Sandy

--
Sandra L Miller
Windows System Administrator
Department of Computer Science
University of Arizona

"The opinions or statements expressed herein are my own and should not be
taken as a position, opinion, or endorsement of the University of Arizona."