I.T. Guy giving me trouble

Jonnyfive · Oct 20, 2006

At the school I attend I have had the I.T. guy come up to me twice and tell me that I have downloaded 1 gig in a one day span.

Here's the thing, i've been surfing the web, checking email, talking on msn, but I haven't downloaded anything at all.

He has told me twice and each time I tell him it must be wrong or someone else, but he says it's linked to my ip address and mac which he has recorded and he has double checked to make sure they were correct.

Is there anything that could be running in the background or something that could be causing my computer to do 1 gig.

Personally I think he is wrong and there must be a glitch in the router software that monitors data transfer, maybe when it does 100mbs it is not compatable with mac or something and shows 1gig instead, I have no idea.

Anyone have any suggestions?

dtravis7 · Oct 20, 2006

Have you had OSX download any OS updates? That is all I can think of.

Zoolook · Oct 20, 2006

If it was a PC, I'd say it's either a trojan which has hijacked the machine and using it as a P2P server, or it;s downloading updates in the background without telling the user.

Since Macs are exceptionally unlikely to do either, I'd say it's a glitch in the software. 1 gig is a **** of a lot to download in a single sitting.

Jonnyfive · Oct 20, 2006

Zoolook said:
If it was a PC, I'd say it's either a trojan which has hijacked the machine and using it as a P2P server, or it;s downloading updates in the background without telling the user.

Since Macs are exceptionally unlikely to do either, I'd say it's a glitch in the software. 1 gig is a **** of a lot to download in a single sitting.

I agree, that is A LOT to be downloaded inadvertantly. So I just shake my head when he comes to talk to me, I am not an idiot when it comes to computers I keep an eye on programs that are running. and I downloaded some mac anti virus software and scanned the system and she was as clean as a whilstle. It complicates things because he does not know anything about macs.

Murlyn · Oct 20, 2006

You could always download and try out "Little Snitch" and see what it has to say about your network transfer.

PunkRockTuba · Oct 20, 2006

Murlyn said:
You could always download and try out "Little Snitch" and see what it has to say about your network transfer.

thats what I would do, so if he comes and talks to you, you can say youve been monitoring your network use and it shows nothing about downloading a gig.

NanoBite · Oct 20, 2006

Jonnyfive said:
At the school I attend I have had the I.T. guy come up to me twice and tell me that I have downloaded 1 gig in a one day span.

Here's the thing, i've been surfing the web, checking email, talking on msn, but I haven't downloaded anything at all.

He has told me twice and each time I tell him it must be wrong or someone else, but he says it's linked to my ip address and mac which he has recorded and he has double checked to make sure they were correct.

Is there anything that could be running in the background or something that could be causing my computer to do 1 gig.

Personally I think he is wrong and there must be a glitch in the router software that monitors data transfer, maybe when it does 100mbs it is not compatable with mac or something and shows 1gig instead, I have no idea.

Anyone have any suggestions?

When you are on the internet and are surfing then technically each page you go to has to be 'downloaded' to your computer in order for you to view it. This download isn't ever going to blow out to a massive 1gb as web pages/links are not that big in the scheme of things.
However, if you frequent YouTube or similar sites, when you click on the link to watch some videos, they need to be downloaded for you to watch and this will chew-up your quota somewhat.
BUT...again, it's very unusual that you'd chew a gig in a day and as others have suggested look into the 'behind the scenes' a bit further.

baggss · Oct 20, 2006

If you are keeping Safari open all day, in safari go WINDOW > ADVANCED and add up the numbers. It will show you what safari has downloaded to display just for web browsing. If your hanging on YouTube or some such and watching Videos, you may be downloading, but not saving, more than you realize.