kernel_task high internet bandwidth usage

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Bozz_IT Author

Level 1

8 points

kernel_task high internet bandwidth usage

Hi,

Took me a bit to find this so thought I'd share it.

After Upgrading to Mavericks

Long Story:

Got a Bill for extra usage from my internet provider I started taking a closer look at my daily usage, and on average was aroud 5G per day. Quite excesive as 3 or 4 of those days I was out of town, and was not home, so it made no sense as to why my usage was still in the 5G range. I then started isolating various devices using my router, and once I cut off my iMac from the internet I started seeing less than 1G per day even with my normal usage.

The issue was that box, so installed wireshark on it and started looking at the traffic going out, tons of packets destined for a machine owned by Apple in the 17.158.10.* Range on https. Started uninstalling various 3rd Party Software such as dyndns Updater and finally Soundflower. Soundflower installs Kernel extensions and according to a post i found on google

https://code.google.com/p/soundflower/issues/detail?id=231

and that pointed to:

http://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/kext-requirements-for-os-x-10-9-maver icks/

That explains a new requirement for kernel extensions to be signed and verified... BUT for 5G a day realy?!?

So no real choice to uninstall SoundFlower For now and wait for a signed version if that is even comming.

Hope this helps someone.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 7, 2013 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2014 9:09 PM in response to Bozz_IT

This helped me. Thanks!

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Answer 2

solomani

Level 2

167 points

Oct 27, 2016 8:01 PM in response to Robert Fredley

I am seeing similiar issues - kernel_task has sent 7gb of data in the last 45m:

Its killing my network connection:

Any idea how can I troubleshoot this to see what exactly is causing this? Kernel_task doesnt really give any details. I dont have Soundcloud or the like installed.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Oct 28, 2016 8:30 AM in response to solomani

What all 3rd party extentions are you running?

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

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Answer 4

solomani

Level 2

167 points

Oct 29, 2016 6:21 AM in response to BDAqua

What a great tool, thanks for the link. This is what I see in my kernel list (after rebooting the problem disappeared):

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (11.2.2 32651 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-06) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.netbridge (11.2.2 32651 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-06) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (11.2.2 32651 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-06) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.vnic (11.2.2 32651 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-06) [Support]

/Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner

[loaded] org.pqrs.driver.Karabiner (10.21.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-07-07) [Support]

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.mice.driver.Wireless360Controller (1.0.0d14 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.mice.driver.WirelessGamingReceiver (1.0.0d14 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

/Library/StartupItems/BRESINKx86Monitoring

[not loaded] com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring (9.0 - 2013-04-13) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.1.2 - SDK 10.7 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.dvdfab.kext.fabio (1.0 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.mice.driver.Xbox360Controller (1.0.0d14 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.NVDAStartupWeb (10.13.65 - OS X 10.7 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.GeForceTeslaWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.GeForceWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGF100HalWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGK100HalWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAGM100HalWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDANV50HalTeslaWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanTeslaWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb (10.13.65 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.orderedbytes.driver.ControllerMateFamily (4.6.0 - SDK 10.6 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.2.6 (26977) - SDK 10.4 - 2016-10-29) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/ControllerMate.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[loaded] com.orderedbytes.driver.CMUSBDevices (4.6.0 - SDK 10.6 - 2013-04-04) [Support]

[not loaded] com.orderedbytes.driver.CMUSBKeyboard (1.0 - SDK 10.6 - 2013-04-04) [Support]

[not loaded] com.orderedbytes.driver.CMUSBPointer (1.0 - SDK 10.6 - 2013-04-04) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/Seagate Storage Driver.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.2.6 (26977) - SDK 10.4 - 2015-01-31) [Support]

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.2.6 (26977) - SDK 10.5 - 2015-01-31) [Support]

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.2.6 (26977) - SDK 10.4 - 2015-01-31) [Support]

I notice there are still NVIDIA drivers there even though I uninstalled it due to the Sierra bug of not coming out of sleep properly. But I still see it listed in the kernel - no way to remove it from the kernel directly?

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