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My ISP says that there appears to be a "bot" on one of my computers

DavidA2DavidA2
edited September 2012 in Other / Mixed
Yeah...I got an email today from my ISP (Comcast) that said that it appears to them that one of my computers may be "infected" with a bot. They have detected some unusual activity.

Sven...have you coded something malicious in this program? I have no idea what type of "unusual activity" they are talking about!...oh wait...maybe they are talking about the 20 terabytes of bandwidth I have used in the past two weeks running SER...yeah...that must be it.

Ha-ha...this is kind of funny! (BTW - you know I was kidding, Sven - and anyone else that reads this!!) I guess I am going to have to contact them and tell them this is "normal" for my PC. Think they will buy that?

Has anyone else that is running this from a home PC had their ISP complain about anything?

Comments

  • HunarHunar
    Yes, I've had a lot of complaints about this.

    I've been doing this for 5 years and have received all sorts of things.  I've called and emailed.   They aren't even sure why these are sent out.  I even had pop up on my computer from them saying that which did worry me for sure. I even told them exactly what I do,  I kept asking to talk to someone who knows more tech stuff than just customer service.  I kept doing what i was doing though and eventually they just went away.    And haven't heard anything since.
  • DavidA2DavidA2
    Interesting. Thanks, Hunar, for sharing. Anyone else have any similar experiences? I don't know if they even have the technology/capability of limiting usage at the household level. Anyone know the answer to that?
  • HunarHunar
    Yeah they deff can.

    I know people who have had theirs cut down cause they used to much bandwidth.  They can tell if you are downloading movies or Music.  If they can throttle bandwidth on cell phones i'm almost 100% sure it can be done through home PC's.
  • BytefakerBytefaker
    That's the reason why I'm doing EVERYTHING over proxies. Then this problems are gone...
  • DavidA2DavidA2
    Bytefaker...I was wondering about this. Right now, I am only POSTING with proxies. Does this really solve the problem though. Surely they can still tell that I am using a lot of bandwidth even if I am using proxies.
  • JackSparrowJackSparrow
    edited September 2012
    Using proxies will not limit bandwidth usage.

    You need to check your ISP's bandwidth limits per month. While some home broadband type plans are unlimited, most ISP's have a cap. If you go over this limit, they may even cut you off.

    If you have such a limit, find out what it is and don't exceed it. If you're likely to go over, invest in a VPS for all your bandwidth guzzling software. ;)

  • BytefakerBytefaker
    edited September 2012
    I'm on VPS and when I don't use proxies (even for identifying sites) I get such complainments. In my case I've luck, they report it as attacking from outside and don't get that it's me that I'm connecting to so many sites. But then they block a part of the requests automatically by intrusion detection. So yes, doing everything over (unmetered) proxies solve the problem.
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