nbagent process, what is it?

If you can't answer the question of what NBAGENT is then any addition troll like behavior serves no purpose other then you being the rear end of a donkey. It is a valid question that deserves an answer or just plain silence. Being an egotistical snarky mules *** helps no one

Rachael Jellicoe

I agree Csound1

And we still do not know what the NBAGENT service is for.

Why it is there. What traffic it is transfering. Is it nessesary to have it running... etc.

Apple Support Forums is quite often waste of time.

That is my experience.

Approx 99% of the support information on Apple Support Forums is to no use.

Peace

Linc Davis wrote:

I've never once heard of "Little Snitch" doing anything useful for anyone

You have heard people say how useful it is, you've just chosen to foolishly ignore them.

Just two posts below yours is one that says

"Little Snitch is one of the most valuable utilities I run, despite what the uninformed might think. It gives you an idea of how many leeches there are out there wanting to suck information from your computer that you wouldn't know about otherwise."

And directly below that one is another that reads

"Linc, you're clueless mate. Like the other two guys said, Little Snitch is an excellent tool if you know how to use it."

Still another reads "It's very useful to control your outbound, that way you can see what apps are trying to do on the internet and you can restrict their behavior."

And yet another says "Actually, Little Snitch saved me from the Flashback trojan.

You think THAT'S not useful?!

If that's not enough, I've found LS to be very useful.

I currently have apps blocked from accessing doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, and google-analytics.l.google.com.

I also have an extensive hosts file that blocks those sites, but many people won't touch their hosts file or don't know how, so LS is easier for them. The free app Gas Mask makes it very simple to edit one's hosts file. An extensive blocklist with monthly updates can be downloaded from http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm and easily added into Gas mask.

People who don't use a connection manager like LS or Hands Off! have no way of knowing what connections are constantly being made, so they blindly allow themselves to be tracked and monitored.

So Linc, do you still contend you've "never once heard" of it doing anything useful for "anyone?" 😠

Little Snitch is one of the most valuable utilities I run, despite what the uninformed might think. It gives you an idea of how many leeches there are out there wanting to suck information from your computer that you wouldn't know about otherwise.

You can permanently allow any alert you get from Little Snitch so you don't have to be bothered with those alerts, despite what the uninformed might think.

Also, you don't have to buy or use Little Snitch if you don't want to, despite what the uninformed might think.

Let's try adding some actual information to the discussion.

In OS X parlance, an "agent" is a background process launched on a per-user basis. In this case, the nb appears to stand for "notice board", based on the fact that nbagent lives at path: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Noticeboard.framework/Versions/A/Resources/nb agent.app/

Linc-

I've seen many good answers from you over time, all extremely detailed and well-informed. You've given help to lots of people (although occasionally, you can be a wee bit short with those less-clueful... :-)

So I'm surprised to see you dumping on LS. I've worked in IT security for like 20 years, and LS is one of the things I depend on to keep my system trustworthy. It is literally the first outside app I install on a fresh Mac. I really want to know who my machine is talking to, and more than once I have caught and stopped communications I did not want happening. I think everyone should use a good password manager, and anyone who is comfortable/familiar with both network processes and MacOS might benefit from LS, even if only as a learning tool.

Extensive network experience is nice. Adminning Mac networks is extremely easy, I've done it, but I didn't know anything when I was doing it. I have talked to upper level Apple techs who didn't know about zero days that had come out months ago. It takes 44 days on average for a zero day to be patched after its discovery. That's after it's been in the wild for X amount of days. Nobody I've encountered at any "Genius Bar" has any clue what an attack even looks like. I spoke with a tech support director at Apple and even reading from Threatpost, he had no idea what I was talking about. I've talked to them about current hacks that were well established or in the security blogs, zero. Nothing. The only thing they know is how to format a hard drive and reinstall OSX, and how to turn a firewall on or off. Maybe some command line tricks too.

If you actually pay attention to the hacks going on as opposed to "what you've heard of," you will begin to feel some of the fear and read the experiences. If you've ever been the victim of a real hack on a Mac, you might not even know it, if you aren't looking, which you won't be, because most Mac users don't look. Little Snitch is an extremely basic utility similar to GUFW, the linux firewall. The difference is that it is impartial, whereas OSX's default firewall offers zero information about what it's doing and is not useful for controlling outgoing data. I have learned more about apple processes than I've ever wanted to know from using Little Snitch.

Just a heads up – using LS, I determined that nbagent is used for website notifications that show up in Notification Center.

A web search for "nbagent" pointed me to this Apple document, Requirements for Software Update Service - Apple Support, which seems to support the theory that it is related to Software Update (although "nbagent" is not specifically mentioned in the document).

It's a built-in process, undocumented but apparently involved in sending notifications from Apple.

"Little Snitch" is good for nothing but wasting your time with pointless alerts like those and interfering with normal system operation.

This discussion is proof of the fact that "Little Snitch" is time-wasting rubbish.I have seen hundreds and maybe thousands like it, but I've never once heard of "Little Snitch" doing anything useful for anyone. If you install software that you don't trust, you have problems that it's not going to solve.

Linc Davis wrote:

I have seen hundreds and maybe thousands like it, but I've never once heard of "Little Snitch" doing anything useful for anyone. If you install software that you don't trust, you have problems that it's not going to solve.

Agree. Never heard of this application, extensive network (Apple business, consumer) has never heard of it and, and although it's owners have a nice looking website, common consensus is "I wouldn't install." With proper security, firewall, modem/router settings, safe internet policies, shouldn't be any need for an unknown app like this.

We'll continue to rely on Apple's reliable safeguards and security settings without encumbering our systems with unknown applications. As always, thanks for the useful feedback.

Apparently it's Little Snitch > Little Snitch intercepted "Noticeboard wants to connect to swscan.apple.com" Legit?

It appears to be something related to Software Update and/or the Mac App Store, so allowing it seems safe. I'd speculate that it showed up in the latest OS X update since I'd never seen it before today either, and the first google hits seem to appear only very recently.

To the repliers:

I don't know what crusade y'all are on against Little Snitch, but it's a very useful utility for keeping an eye on what apps are trying to make network connections. If you're running up against people without the technical knowledge to make effective use of it I can see how it could be easier to advise them not to use a tool they don't understand. But advising a blanket "LS is evil; don't use it" for a legitimate pinpoint question about a specific connection-attempt is overkill.

FUD doesn't belong on the Apple discussion boards, no matter how many points you have.