Unusually high upload

I am getting unusually high upload on my broadband account and I don't know why. Running two computers (Vista and XP) on ADSL with wireless connection from modem to computers. Connection is 1500/256 kbits/s with BigPond. Uploads have been about 500 MBytes/day for 3 days, then normal (18 MB) then back to about 500 MB for one day (today). This is slightly more than downloads over the same period. Normally upload is about 10% of downloads (over past 2 months).

My son plays games (Nine Dragons and Atlantica Online, as well as Runescape, which he hasn't played for a while), but nothing that he hasn't been playing for some time. He also downloaded about half of Sword of the New World at the time this started happening (Saturday/Sunday).

Vista computer (used for games) runs Windows Defender and AVG free, and XP runs Online Armor and Avira Antivir - both kept up to date.

Any ideas on what might be happening, or how I can find out?

Thanks.

 

You could use you taskmanager to see if it is running from your PC.
Or then check the game your son downloaded to see if it has a sharing file,which will mean you are uploading the game.

 

Thanks Bill. That was quick.
What should I look for on Taskmanager, and how can I find out if that game has a sharing file?

 

First check "applications" to see what is running
then in "services" check to see the same or any application that is using the CPU that you don't know.

As for the game go to "downloads" and open the file for the game and check the folders to see if there is anything suspicious.

if you use P2P they can sometimes add in an upload file.

If all this fails go to http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 and go through the procedure.

 

Thanks again. I'll get onto it.
It's just occurred to me that Online Armor has an icon in the taskbar that shows uploads and downloads (a little bar graph). Is there anything like that on Defender or Vista that would show uploads?

 

Looks like the problem was X-Fire, a P2P program that my son used to download a game. He left the door open for others to download from his copy of the game file, which was merrily going on at a great rate. We were able to fix the problem by disabling file sharing in X-Fire.
Thanks for your help.

 

When your contract with !@#$% Bigpond is about to expire, PM me and I will suggest an alternative (and they don't count uploads :cool ).

Regards, Bazza

 

Thanks Bigbazza the banana bender!:-D
22 months to go. Signed up 2 months ago - man at the door. It was a good deal - but I didn't spot the catch (12 GB usage per months, not 12 GB download) until too late. Still a good deal, but have to watch the uploads.
You could tell me the alternative now if you want to. One can always influence others.

 

hmm, when i first read the title of the thread, i thought that the OP was complaining about their upload speeds being too high. i thought to myself, "why in the world would someone complain about their internet being too fast?"

then i read the thread

whoops, guess i was wrong:-D. i also guess that this can be classified as thread hijacking of a high level. oh well...:-o

 

Glad you got it sorted.
You have learned a very valuable lesson without too much cost.
When you have limited bandwidth uploads can be very damaging.

 

Yep. Thanks Bill. Just as well I keep an eagle eye on such stuff. Lesson there for me too.
Thanks again for putting me on the right track.

 

I won't plug the ISP that I use at this stage as new providers start up, and fall, all the time.

Some Australian links for you to research in the meantime are:

OZ Broadband Survey 2006 Report
http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2006/

Whirlpools Australian Broadband survey for 2007
http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2007/

Search & Compare Broadband Providers & Internet Plans
http://www.broadbandguide.com.au/

Bazza

PS: To find what ISP's service your area, go to http://whirlpool.net.au/ and enter your phone number ifn the box provided.

Baz

 

That's excellent. Thanks Bazza.

 

You're welcome. I've noticed how us Aussies, in particular, make great use of the "Thanks" button.

Bazza

===

 

We're a polite bunch.
(Should het a survey going.)

 

roflmao

Bazza

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Would you believe, moderately polite some of the time...?