phantom downloads?

Antivirus, forensics, intrusion detection, cryptography, etc.
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TechNot
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun 09 Feb 2014, 20:06
Location: not too far from Waco,Tx
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phantom downloads?

#1 Post by TechNot »

hay all,

so im trying to learn this linux stuff on an old thinkpad ...with slacko57

im giving my eyes a rest from searching forums and whatnot ...close out the browser (firefox 27.0.1)

a few minutes of sipping coffee and petting the cat i happen to notice the download speed widget on my seemingly idle laptop is showing activity of something downloading ....

i have come to expect this type of thing on windows but i wasnt aware linux had any of that

and being new at this i really dont have a clue how to findout what it is...is it normal ...is it cookies phoning home or what

any clues?
IBM Thinkpad R51 2888HU1 .. pent M 1.5 .. 2gig ram .. intel graphics

(This is the smaller 14 inch version) detailed specs in WWW link

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8-bit
Posts: 3406
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 03:37
Location: Oregon

#2 Post by 8-bit »

Could it be that your email application is downloading new emails?
Just a thought.

TechNot
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun 09 Feb 2014, 20:06
Location: not too far from Waco,Tx
Contact:

#3 Post by TechNot »

@ 8-bit

I have not set up email on it yet ... but thats a thought I'll keep in mind for later ...

I sat and watched it for quite some time and the kb/s were tiny ...like 0.1...0.7 range and just randomly occuring

I deleted all cookies in firefox and even rebooted and it still occurs ...

Keep in mind this is occuring on a laptop thats only booted to the desktop..nothing is running other than the wireless connection

I was kind of thinking it might be the wireless maintaining its connection but I would think that would probably be more rhythmic ( more of a timed event?)

or maybe something to do with the widget itself? ... time sync? ...???

I have no clue and dont yet know enough about Linux to find out
IBM Thinkpad R51 2888HU1 .. pent M 1.5 .. 2gig ram .. intel graphics

(This is the smaller 14 inch version) detailed specs in WWW link

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Moat
Posts: 955
Joined: Tue 16 Jul 2013, 06:04
Location: Mid-mitten

#4 Post by Moat »

Hey TechNot -

I highly doubt it's Linux, itself - but most likely Firefox.

In Edit>Preferences, shut off - Block reported attack sites and web forgeries (Firefox periodically dwnlds a database file for those), Health and Crash reporter, Auto update search engines.

In Tools>Addons, Reset all addons to update manually.

Type about:config in the address bar, search "update", set "app.update.auto" to false. Older versions used to have a menu checkbox for that... no more.

Firefox seems like it doesn't always want to translate and retain tweaks from the GUI menus, so while in about:config I like to carefully peruse and disable (with Google's help) numerous other auto update stuff with search terms like "update", "health", "crash", etc.

Try the above, and see if that helps calm down the background chatter...

Bob

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