Les Harris
New Member
I am baffled by an ongoing problem with data download figures. I have two computers running at the moment but the problem also occurred on past system boxes. This is on Australian servers, which might well be beyond the experience of this forum.
One computer is running XP Pro, now thoroughly out of date because it refused to install updates a long time back. I continue to use it because my email is on it and because there are several frequently used programmes that reside on that box and don’t require Internet. The Internet connection is via Optus Broadband modem; although I have line-of-sight to the local tower, but it is very lumpy in connection performance. I was running it on ADSL2 but the data download numbers were quite alarming and I reverted to wireless broadband only.
The second is a rebuilt box on which I have Win 7 Ultimate. It is running on ADSL2, which is connected to the house where I am now living. This is gratifyingly fast for Internet browsing most of the time but it can at times be as painful as dial-up was 20 years ago.
I ran IE on the old box until the updates fell over, then switched to GC; the new box is on GC. I run the ShaPlus Bandwidth meter on both.
On the old box, the bandwidth meter is showing numbers commensurate with my Internet use; this is mainly home page refresh and reading technical documents online. I almost never view pictures online but will occasionally watch a video on ABC iView. When I watch a video, the meter broadly agrees with the stated size of the video.
On the rebuilt box and on previous boxes over the last several years, I regularly get 400-600 MB on the meter but without using anything other than the normal home page with commensurate refreshes. (This figure does not include Windows update downloads.) The rate of download is also curious. It is usually in the order of 1MB in 3-4 seconds, which must be at the extreme limit of the ADSL2. I am in a country town where the ADSL2 gear is outdated.
Bear in mind that the old box is running Optus Broadband modem only and the new box is on ADSL2 only. Previous boxes were running on the Optus modem and on Telstra cable up to six months ago and in another state on both IE and GC.
I can’t get NETSTAT to stay open on the Win 7 box so I can’t get a capture of where this massive download might be coming from. Even if I could, it isn’t much help to be confronted by hundreds of IP addresses, none of which mean anything to me.
The only factor common between these several boxes that I can think of is my email address. Could that have been compromised in such a way that my computers are being used by some outside agency?
Outside of that, can anyone think of a reason why this is happening?
One computer is running XP Pro, now thoroughly out of date because it refused to install updates a long time back. I continue to use it because my email is on it and because there are several frequently used programmes that reside on that box and don’t require Internet. The Internet connection is via Optus Broadband modem; although I have line-of-sight to the local tower, but it is very lumpy in connection performance. I was running it on ADSL2 but the data download numbers were quite alarming and I reverted to wireless broadband only.
The second is a rebuilt box on which I have Win 7 Ultimate. It is running on ADSL2, which is connected to the house where I am now living. This is gratifyingly fast for Internet browsing most of the time but it can at times be as painful as dial-up was 20 years ago.
I ran IE on the old box until the updates fell over, then switched to GC; the new box is on GC. I run the ShaPlus Bandwidth meter on both.
On the old box, the bandwidth meter is showing numbers commensurate with my Internet use; this is mainly home page refresh and reading technical documents online. I almost never view pictures online but will occasionally watch a video on ABC iView. When I watch a video, the meter broadly agrees with the stated size of the video.
On the rebuilt box and on previous boxes over the last several years, I regularly get 400-600 MB on the meter but without using anything other than the normal home page with commensurate refreshes. (This figure does not include Windows update downloads.) The rate of download is also curious. It is usually in the order of 1MB in 3-4 seconds, which must be at the extreme limit of the ADSL2. I am in a country town where the ADSL2 gear is outdated.
Bear in mind that the old box is running Optus Broadband modem only and the new box is on ADSL2 only. Previous boxes were running on the Optus modem and on Telstra cable up to six months ago and in another state on both IE and GC.
I can’t get NETSTAT to stay open on the Win 7 box so I can’t get a capture of where this massive download might be coming from. Even if I could, it isn’t much help to be confronted by hundreds of IP addresses, none of which mean anything to me.
The only factor common between these several boxes that I can think of is my email address. Could that have been compromised in such a way that my computers are being used by some outside agency?
Outside of that, can anyone think of a reason why this is happening?
