undesired P2P upload issue

Apparently you've gotten some sort of P2P client/server on your system - Ares, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire, Bearshare, or something similar. You need to locate that and shut down the server portion, at least, or remove the package entirely. It's possible that you've gotten a worm or similar on your system that's doing the sharing in the background, so if you can't locate a package in your Add/Remove Programs, run an antivirus scan (making sure your virus definitions are current) and a good antispyware program.

Hope this helps.

If there is something calling out and hogging your bandwidth, you need to know what it is. May I suggest a free option?

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm

I've been a long time fan of the "free" version of this one, especially as a backup for the built in XP firewall. It monitors outgoing traffic, so if there is something calling home in the background, it should give you a popup and ask if it is OK to let that particular app continue.

Give it a shot and see if it helps you narrow down the issue. Heck, if it does, maybe even consider the full version.

(I am in no way affiliated with the company on my link. I will not make money or be compensated for using it. I just like it and think it's a great solution)

Not sure what you mean by P2P, but check your iTunes > Edit > Prefrences > Sharing tab.

Maybe the activity is coming from trying to find shared music.

I thought that, too, but 25MB is an awful lot of just searching. 😉

I have a possible idea...although I don't think it would be an issue if you disabled sharing on iTunes.

If you're on a network with other people who use iTunes, there is a program called "myTunes" (I'm pretty sure it's illegal) that lets people download any song that you have shared in iTunes. I know about it because I am a college student, and a lot of the other kids in my dorm use it to get people's music off of their iTunes.

Basically, I think the solution (if this in fact the problem) is just to turn off sharing for iTunes. There are probably other ways to deal with it (I think there's a way you can have Windows disable sharing for a given file; not sure though).

right. And if we could get him to install a snitch like Kerio, we'd know exactly what the issue is. It will tell him if that's the case or if there is some kind of malware on his system or if any number of other scenarios is what we are looking at.

Yes, if it is MyTunes (which is not legal here in the US) then locking down the share would be wise. He can do this with a password from inside iTunes if he wants to share among the family computers, or just turn it off. But still...25 MB just doesn't ring true if it's a share issue. Even at a conservative 3MB per song, that's only 8 songs that someone is pilfering per day, every day. I've never met a file "sharer" with that much self restraint 😉

Scott, how does Kerio handle a plugin to iTunes (or any other program) accessing the net, if the application has already been given permission?

You recommended Kerio to me a loooooong time ago, and I downloaded and never installed. A couple of weeks ago I dropped ZoneAlarm, and went with Sygate, which seems to be better. I'm just interested in Sygate vs. Kerio.

hudgie

hudgie,
I used so very very few plugins that I can't really remember (back in the bad old days, it was basically that super mondo plugin thingie for iTunes that munged up about half the computers that installed it). But it is more than easy to give things permission. It was literally two clicks. A popup arrives saying that xyz.exe was trying to access the web at such and such an IP address. I clicked on make a rule and give it full permission to go online, then clicked save.

So I spent basically the first half hour or so running just about everything I could think of (apps, updaters, etc.) making rules, and generally saying "Why do I have so much drek on my PC?". After that, I rarely, if ever, saw the darned thing unless I'd done a major upgrade of an app (and that was just one mpre time verifying that I knew it had changed).

That latter is, I think you'll find, no more invasive than your Mini will be when you update something, and it asks if you knew and if it should update the links. The former is much less invasive and far more customizable than, say Little Snitch on OS X (check it out if you've got that paranoid feeling once you go Mini).

Alright thanks.

It's jsut interesting: With Zonealarm, once I allowed Firefox, it went through. With Sygate, even after I allowed Firefox, if Quicktime wanted to access the net through Firefox, it asked again.

I also don't do the 'everything at once thing' in this kind of situation. Allow as needed.

Oh, and about the mini: It's once again been put on hold 🙂

I need more info about the video card, and I'm looking more and more into the 17" iMac.