SQL SQM What are they actually needed for?

Now this will probably sound dumb to a lot of people. But when my firewall requests access to the internet for SQL - SQM as a Server. If I am running a Client machine and not a true server. I am using local network access, but not running a web server or FTP or anything. Do I really need SQL ? I understand it vaguely but never have understood it well enough to know how important or NOT, it is to the Operating system. I tried googling it, and I went to the microsoft website to try to figure this out but I couldnt find a satisfactory answer.

Why is it asking for it?

Where are you seeing the name "SQL - SQM"? There's a chance that your firewall, whatever it may be, is simply matching a port number that is in use to its internal textual list and coming up with the name. For example, when it sees TCP port 80, it goes "aha! That's a 'HTTPD' - a web server", port 21 is "FTP", port 443 is "SSL", and port 51907 is the "Software Quality Metrics (SQM) Client" - according to the MS website.

Of course, if you have something else that's also active on port 51907, most firewalls won't distinguish and it'll still be labeled "SQM" traffic. Unless your machine is on a corporate domain with a SCOM server around, and odds are you'd know about it, it is vanishingly unlikely that the port activity is really caused by SQL/SQM.

Thanks for your responses.

Zone Alarm asked for me to give it permission to access the internet. I dont recall now the exact language it used. I realize without that its probably useless. Next time I make a similar post I will Post the exact message.

I was just curious before giving it permanent permission if there was any downside. I think it said SQM Consolidator ? Does that make sense ? Otherwise again thanks for your reply and I wont worry about it until the next time it comes up and then if I post it here, I will post the exact language.

Thanks again!

I suspect it's coming up with these names purely based on port numbers. A process can bind to any port that's currently free, even if it's a "well known" port that's generally used by another class of software. Hence, if some small utility comes along and binds to TCP port 80, odds are that ZA will claim it's a "HTTP Server". That happens with many firewall solutions. They readily come up with exotic names purely based on port numbers.