hidden downloading?
 

I downloaded Limewire basic on the 21st and downloaded one song to check that it was working. Last night (23rd) I checked my usage for my broadband account only to find that I have somehow used an excessive amount. When i called the server, optus, they informed me that on the 21st (the day I downloaded Limewire and nothing else apart from the usual email or two maybe) I had used 105.5Mb and on the 23rd (again, nothing other than my usual emails only) I had somehow used another 185.8Mb. The customer service guy (and I) reckoned that it must have been Limewire that was somehow using my download allocation. He alerted me to the fact the Limewire was running (hidden) but that should not explain how it had managed to download 195Mb without me doing anything. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it as I am now stuck with 28kbs conection for the rest of this month so I really need to stop this recurring. I have stopped it running on startup now. Anything else? Thanks Alan:(

Unknown or Hidden Downloads
 

Dear Alan (astral_man)

What you are describing is not normal LW behaviour, i.e. LW does not download anything without your expressed permission or unless it is activated and you are an ultrapeer.

I would like to ask a few questions:

1) Where did you download LW from?

2) Do you have any anti-spyware and/or anti-virus software?

3) Do you have a firewall?

4) Have you tried to or configured LW for your particular set-up?

I presume you are using Windows XP and have a fairly good PC, please confirm one way or another?

I believe you have to supply some more info before you can get any help specific to your PC but maybe another forum member can provide some insight into your problem.




UK Bob

Thanks for responing and so quickly Bob. In answer to your questions: 1.I dwonloaded LW from their site. 2, I have ad-aware, spybot, spyblaster ( which I will run now) and NOD anti-virus which is constantly running. 3, I have XP with SP2 with it's built in firewall and a 9 month old decent computer (1Ghz cpu and 256 RAM). 4, since discovering the unauthorised usage I have set a few preferences in the options ie not connect on start up, shutdown after transfers. Apart from that I have not configured it to my system. I'll let you know if the spyware searches turn up anything. Thanks, Alan (from australia.)

Dear Alan (astral_man)

Your answers are in-line with my initial thoughts, except one.

You are using XPs own firewall which is not really a firewall at all, i.e. it will block stuff from getting to your computer but if you already infected, with spyware, a trojan or some app calling out to the internet without your knowledge, then XPs firewall will not stop any unauthorised outgoing communication.

I have found this article about firewalls, though long I suggest you read it to get a “well rounded” view about firewalls and their capabilities:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/foru...lls-tut60.html

I would also suggest that after you have done your security checks you should see whether LW has set you up as an ultrapeer, from memory I believe that this is LW default setting when you first install it.




UK Bob

Hi Bob, No nasties came up from my security checks yesterday. It could have been the ultrapeer thing which I disabled only yesterday. Thanks for the the firewall info. It's good to get educated on these things. Alan