Q: What is "automountd" and why does it try to connect to "fakehome.dat"?

automountd is the automatic mount / unmount daemon for autofs, according to the OS X man page.

So the executable itself is on the up-and-up.

As to why it's trying to connect to that location, I don't know.

It's trying to mount an NFS share. If you want help with that third-party product, which deluges you with useless information and pointless demands for attention, please contact the developer. Better yet, get rid of it.

Network File System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For all other help with "Little Snitch," contact the developer.

What is happening is that OSX is trying to attach to all of the network storage paths you have available, probably to do something like populate the side bar in a save dialog. OSX hits a dead end so it asks the DHCP server for help. The DHCP server is probably at your ISP or perhaps something like OpenDNS.org if you set it up. Typically, they report back some ad-link crap for things they can't find. However, it looks like your ISP intentionally set up something that can't be used. That's a good thing, because OSX will immediately stop looking at that point.

If you are not connecting to file storage, the usual suspects are network files sharing turned on (if you don't need it, turn it off), Time Machine, AirDrop, iCloud, and Dropbox if you have LAN syncing turned on. Even with all of those things turned off, OSX will still try to contact the DHCP server (even though it shouldn't, yes, lil snitch has uncovered a flaw in OSX, harmless though it may be).

Generally, this is not a "problem" per se, but it can cause a delay in showing dialogs etc while DHCP is being queried, but far less than say an external drive that has fallen asleep. If you are not using network file storage outside of your local network, and not using named paths within it, it is probably okay to block traffic to the ISP's DHCP server for automountd (not other processes). You can try it, and if there seems to be a problem, Lil Snitch makes it easy to remove that rule. Should you add some network storage, or an app that does, in the future, then you will likely need to delete this rule.

As for the value of Lil Snitch, "3rd party" are not a dirty words. It is a valuable tool that can spot nepherious or excessive network traffic. My personal experience with it, it has found apps "phoning home", tracking images embedded in emails, runaway processes (hello Dropbox, I'm looking at you), and apps embedded in web pages. But like any tool, it's important to know how to use it. People of alerted to a process they aren't familiar with and are curious, so they do a web search. That's good and fine. Unfortunately, there are too many flippant answers like the one above that provide an solution to the symptom (uninstall the tool) rather than providing an answer to the question asked (what is this thing?).

If you don't understand something that doesn't make it pointless.

Like a lot of old-school forums, Apple Support Communities puts a premium on a contributor's volume, not their quality. It's best to seek answers somewhere else, like the StackExchanges, where contributions are valued qualitatively not quantitatively and the contributors themselves are held accountable for their content and conduct.

dgerton wrote:

 

 

If you don't understand something that doesn't make it pointless.

 

Like a lot of old-school forums, Apple Support Communities puts a premium on a contributor's volume, not their quality. It's best to seek answers somewhere else, like the StackExchanges, where contributions are valued qualitatively not quantitatively and the contributors themselves are held accountable for their content and conduct.

Clearly you don't understand how ASC's system works. Points are awarded not for quantity of posts but for results. And they are awarded only by the posters who's problems were solved.

ie: the 26,000 + points under my name were awarded to me by posters who's problems I solved, the same goes for Linc (only he has solved rather more). Your points are currently at Zero, but when and if you solve a problem the original poster may award you some points for your help, or then again they may not.

To further support Csound1, see this discussion.

https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/reputation.html

The ridiculous irony here is that dgerton posted the only useful (i.e., remotely correct) response to the question. According to the strict DNS protocol, servers should return a NXDOMAIN for requests to unknown/nonexistent domains. Most every ISP (and even, say, Google's public DNS servers) instead return URLs to their sites that provide search results and/or ads.

Similarly, if automountd requests something like fakehome.dat or owner-pc, you should get a NXDOMAIN/"not found". OpenDNS servers, on the other hand, will return an IP for automountd to connect to for a 100% completely bogus name request for the public Internet. Search results are one thing; that's insanity.

I digress, though. The answers before that guy were, at best, literal answers to his question or, at worst, quick Google replies to a much deeper question. I think everybody understands how voting systems work. A popular majority does not necessarily (or even typically) indicate factual correctness.

jonathan.pierce wrote:

 

A popular majority does not necessarily (or even typically) indicate factual correctness.

Then what does it indicate, and more to the point, what does having earned no points denote?

That some so-called experts are not actually that helpful, and that new voices shouldn't be simply rejected outright without actually investigating the merits of their claims.

Absolutely!

I'm tired of seeing Linc express his opinion of Little Snitch as fact!

Having 100k points doesn't make him 100% correct.

I don't use Keynote, should I tell everyone to "get rid of it?"

I suppose he'll also say the Apple Firewall is a useless utility since it performs some of the same functions as LS.

There's are very good reasons LS has been around for 10 years, and Linc isn't going to convince me that it only "deluges you with useless information and pointless demands for attention," or that the only people who use it are software thieves and people too dumb to know they don't need it.

OregonRebel wrote:

 

Absolutely!

 

I'm tired of seeing Linc express his opinion of Little Snitch as fact!

Having 100k points doesn't make him 100% correct.

 

And neither does having 20 points, so how to choose between 'your' opinion and his?

Little Snitch is a waste of time

Now there are 3 opinions.

Sorry Cs but I find Little Snitch extremely useful, and far from a waste of time. I consider you a friend, but on this we have to disagree. So another vote for Little Snitch. Its alerts may not always be essential, although they may catch something untoward. And the Network Monitor is always useful for knowing just where things, especially Add-ons, may be connecting.

It's  more information, sometimes useful, sometimes not. I like to know who and what is phoning home. It gives me more control. And btw, once you have it set up, it doesn't intrude to any great extent.

And as for Mr. Davis, he seems to have a knee-jerk, unthinking reaction against anything that modifies the "purity" of the OS.

dgerton's post was very informative. I know several people who, if they came here would have zero points, but who could usually blow the socks off Mr. Davis any day.

Csound1 wrote:

 

And neither does having 20 points, so how to choose between 'your' opinion and his?

 

Little Snitch is a waste of time

 

Now there are 3 opinions.

1) I'm guessing neither you (nor Linc) work in (or even care about) proper netsec. I can go into a full explanation if you wish, but please understand that you're playing a statistics game when it comes to leaking information and/or identity theft, particularly if you still have Apple's Java installed underneath Oracle's.

2) An opinion is only worthwhile if you back it up with fact, which you've completely failed to do with regard to anything you've stated in this thread. You've also failed to dispute anything that dgerton actually said, whether that's because of a smug sense of superiority or because the explanation is too technical for you. I won't assume either there; I'll just ask you to understand that there are people who are capable of more than basic helpdesk troubleshooting (which ASC's vote system rewards), and that people with advanced degrees in Computer Science are, sadly, often too busy to help others out on that level.