Is downloading videos and music a likely source of large amounts of outgoing network traffic from my computer?
October 18, 2011 10:48 AM   Subscribe

Is downloading videos and music a likely source of large amounts of outgoing network traffic from my computer?

Hey all,

I recently received this e-mail from my university...

"Routine monitoring... has revealed unusually large amounts of outgoing network traffic from your computer, usually indicative of peer to peer file-sharing or multimedia protocols in violation of the terms and conditions of your connection. If you don't explain this you run the risk of being disconnected from the network."

I am currently downloading what I would consider to be moderate amounts of multimedia (maybe a handful of albums and a couple of TV shows a week)... is this likely to be the source of large amounts of network traffic? If not, what else might be? I am not using BitTorrent or any P2P programmes. Thanks in advance,
posted by FuckingAwesome to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
How are you downloading the media?
posted by alms at 10:50 AM on October 18, 2011


If you aren't using peer-to-peer, then there is generally very little outgoing traffic associated with downloads like this. Do you upload a lot of movies to youtube or similar sites? Post lots of photos online? Run a webcam? All of these things could send a lot of data to the internet.

Alternatively, you could monitor your own traffic and probably figure it out.

What sort of computer are you using (mac/windows/etc)? We could certainly tell you how to go about figuring out what sort/amount of data is leaving your computer.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:52 AM on October 18, 2011


Have you enabled file sharing on your computer? Other people might be getting files off your network share.
posted by katrielalex at 10:57 AM on October 18, 2011


Are you watching ESPN videos on a mac with Safari ?

We had a user here at work who was watching the Tour De France on ESPN and his computer was hammering the network - 15,000-20,000 open connections per second. The user never noticed a difference, but us IT dudes sure did.

Point is, some video players are poorly behaved. In fact, some apps are, too.

If you tell us what kind of computer you have, we can give you more specific info on how to find out what is going on (netstat, etc.)
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:01 AM on October 18, 2011


Are you using Spotify? It actually a P2P application that's always uploading. So is Skype. I believe the metacafe video player is actually a flash based P2P player (according to sonicwall, its P2P rules block it).

Is your computer compromised? You can do virus scans and run an application like TCPview which will show you all your outgoing connections. You can also contact IT for more details, I'm sure they get that request all the time. This email looks like some automated rule some admin cooked up. At the very least you can ask them what type of traffic, when, and on what ports.

Lastly, do you have a wireless router plugged in? Someone could be doing this on your wireless. Or a P2P happy roommate?
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:17 AM on October 18, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Using a Macbook Pro. I use Chrome for browsing and download videos and music using Rapidshare and Mediafire. Occasionally I stream music from a couple of radio stations... that's all I can think of!
posted by FuckingAwesome at 11:19 AM on October 18, 2011


Response by poster: Oh, I have been using Spotify... I'll delete that now!
posted by FuckingAwesome at 11:19 AM on October 18, 2011


Given that they said "If you don't explain this you run the risk of being disconnected from the network."

You could simply say "I've been using Spotify, which is legal, so don't turn off my internet."

You don't need to delete the whole application.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:24 AM on October 18, 2011 [4 favorites]


You could simply say "I've been using Spotify, which is legal, so don't turn off my internet."

It doesn't matter if the application is legal, it only matters if it violates their IT policies, which it sounds like it may based on the bit that was included in the question ("multimedia protocols")

IMHO: Tell them you were using Spotify, and if they tell you not to do that, then don't.
posted by aramaic at 12:21 PM on October 18, 2011


You could simply say "I've been using Spotify, which is legal, so don't turn off my internet."

They didn't say he was doing something illegal, they said it violated their terms of service. They could disallow apps that do what Spotify does regardless of its legality.
posted by alms at 12:21 PM on October 18, 2011


The quoted email says, quite clearly:

...usually indicative of peer to peer file-sharing or multimedia protocols in violation of the terms and conditions of your connection. If you don't explain this you run the risk of being disconnected from the network.

It seems quite clear that even though this is *usually* indicative of a protocol violation, *sometimes* it is not, which is presumably why they offer people a chance to explain themselves rather than simply disconnecting them without warning.

I would offer the explanation of "It's Spotify" and see if they say "Oh, yeah, that's fine, no problem here."
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 1:01 PM on October 18, 2011


Why would Spotify be creating outgoing network traffic?
posted by Vectorcon Systems at 10:01 AM on October 19, 2011


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