Slave computer?

[Old Savage]

How can you tell if your computer is being run as a slave to another computer? What to do about it? Does it even happen or urban myth?

[Rusty]

Sometimes you can get a Trojan on your computer that will cause it to send e-mails and such for someone else. Is that what you're talking about?

A good up to date anti-virus program should help you.

Update your program then take the computer off line, put it in safe mode and run the anti-virus program.

[Old Savage]

No reason to think it is sending emails just seems to run slow and a lot sometimes. Has Kaspersky on it.

[harry]

How can you tell if your computer is being run as a slave to another computer? What to do about it? Does it even happen or urban myth?

Have you looked in the lower left corner of your screen to see if it has a NSA stamp.

[Old Savage]

They must have heard you because now it goes like lightning.

[pdentrem]

Mac I cannot help much.

Was it in a middle of an update, these can occur when in the background and you may not be aware that it is eating resources.

Is it slow while using Internet Explorer? Or is it slow in general? Or are you falling for the commercials?

A good friend called and said her computer was running slow, please come over and help. She had add on Tool Bars under Internet Explorer. Like Google Tool Bar, Bing Tool Bar etc. deleted them all and she is running just fine now. also deleted a few items that she was not aware that she had installed. Sneaky stuff.

Slow in general, check available space on hard drive. Have less than 2 - 5 gigabytes available. Getting a bit tight.
Do a control, alternate, delete and call up the task manager. Look at all processes running. What is using the most CPU time? Also check the memory load as well.
How much RAM available? Might be a bit light if a store bought system. If 32 bit system max is under 3.6 gigs. If a 64 bit system then depending on the motherboard from 4 to 32 gigs of RAM can be installed. I have 4 gigs on a 32 bit system as that is the way the mem chips are sold. On the Linux box running 64 bit I have 16 and can go to 32 gigs of RAM.

Just some thoughts.
Pierre

[alnitak]

Another reason it may be slow is overhead from a bunch of processes running at start-up. Check your "msconfig" to see what programs are automatically started, e.g., like iTunes Updater, HP printer, Quicktime, etc. I periodically go through and uncheck those things that seem to get activated on their own. Don't worry, when your system needs something, like to print, it will call up the appropriate process. Otherwise, it just sits there...kinda like turning on all the lights in your house in case you need to go into a room rather than turning on the light switch when you need it.

You also may find that some of those programs are spyware and/or trojans. Not all memory-resident processes can be identified and/or stopped by programs like Kapersky, Adaware or Avast. In some case, you may need to boot in safe mode and run such program from external drive to get rid of the malware.

Along with the post above, clean out your Internet cache (you can also increase the space used) and make sure you have at least 15% free hard drive space.

[Grizz]

How can you tell if your computer is being run as a slave to another computer? What to do about it? Does it even happen or urban myth?

direct answers to the questions. no it is not a myth, it does happen.

it takes some work to undo it depending on the exact method being employed.

the best way to check for that kind of activity is with a packet sniffer. it will show you all of the data entering and leaving your machine. you can sniff around the jooglers and find out all you want to know, and maybe more.

and finally, as an aside, there are many legitimate instances of one operator logging into someone else's computer. you might do it yourself if you wanted to access your home computer from somewhere else in the world. you might do it if you wanted to log into your work computer from somewhere offsite. there are white board applications where computers hook up in a grand network for workgroup purposes, which is a form of file sharing. and computer help services log into computers to fix problems, say the geek at HP logs into your machine.

Best,

Grizz

[AJMD429]

It would be nice if computers all had something like "Task Manager" that was more user-friendly, and would identify what group of programs or tasks all the running routines belong to, and similarly, if there were a way to call up a "Traffic Monitor" that would identify the sources of input/output going to and from the internet as to what program, or at least type of program, caused them to be sent or received. Many times I hear the disk just chattering away during down-time, and who knows what it is doing or why...

[bmtshooter]

I am on DSL & have noticed that slowness at peak useage times. Early evening hours (right after work for most people) are really slow, and things speed up again around 10:00. Where I am located, speed is definitely dependent on the service provider's system demand.

[pdentrem]

Once the kids get home and until they go to bed, things slow down a bit just about everywhere.
Pierre

[Rusty]

I had been using free AVG for my anti-virus programs for years until I once took my wife's computer to Staples for a "tune up." They convinced me that Kapersy's was a better program, so I bought it. After putting it on my computer over the next year my computer kept running slower and slower. When it expired I didn't renew but switched back to Free AVG. I also couldn't get Kapersky off my machine using the standard control panel function. I did a search on how to remove before I was able to get rid of it. When I switched back to AVG I also noticed a faster boot time.

[Sixgun]

Sometimes you can get a Trojan on your computer that will cause it to send e-mails and such for someone else. Is that what you're talking about?

A good up to date anti-virus program should help you.

Update your program then take the computer off line, put it in safe mode and run the anti-virus program.

That happened to us a couple of years ago. Was easy to tell, the inbox the clogged with mega amounts of e-mails. The wife got rid of it as these things are over my head---------6

[PriseDeFer]

Check out Process Explorer from Sysinternals. It shows you what's running and you can click on an unknown process and look it up online. You could get Autoruns from the same place, it will show you what loads when you boot up and allows you to de-select them.
These programs are freeware, small and require no installs.

[kelbro]

Are you on wireless? Is it secured with a password? If not, a neighbor may be using your internet connection.

[Old Savage]

No kelbro DSL but the wireless we do have for other deivces is protected by a password. but thanks for the suggestion.

I have been investigating by looking at the Windows task manager then shutting the computer down and restarting with the task manager processes running then opening up various processes and watching the useage - just shutting down and restarting reduced processes usage by about 700,000 k in memory usage. Starting something up within facebook greatly increased usage that did not stop when that operation or site was closed. Interesting but early on in investigating this.

[vancelw]

... Starting something up within facebook greatly increased usage that did not stop when that operation or site was closed. Interesting but early on in investigating this.

Facebook is Skynet.

[Old Savage]

Don't know what Skynet is but if you keep the Task Manager open next to your browser and watch the usage you will see that clicking on stories in either Google News or FaceBook will sharply increase usage that will not cease when the story is closed. However if you close wither of those two tabs that you opened it in then reopen them in a new tab the usage will sharply drop. I wonder if their attached advertising is involved.

[Grizz]

OS, you can block facebook and google ads and whatever else in the hosts file. Facebook hooks up to you if you don't and maintains the connection, vs, say this forum which drops the connection, as it should. I block everything that connects itself without my prior knowledge and consent.

If you want facebook for some reason, you have to live with the incursion.

Grizz

P.S. there are also 'supercookies' and 'tracking cookies' that are inherent in those kind of apps that regular cookie controls don't control. they are a whole 'nother universe of monopolizing your data interface and monitoring your life. more fun.

[vancelw]

Don't know what Skynet is ....snip
.....FaceBook will sharply increase usage that will not cease when the story is closed. However if you close wither of those two tabs that you opened it in then reopen them in a new tab the usage will sharply drop. I wonder if their attached advertising is involved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator

Kyle explains that in the near future an artificial intelligence defence network called Skynet will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear holocaust of mankind.

It all starts with Facebook and then the NSA
Time to prepare your bug-out kit...

[Old Savage]

If you bug out - you will be dead meat with the others stranded on the highways with the first guy to run out of gas.

[Grizz]

If you bug out - you will be dead meat with the others stranded on the highways with the first guy to run out of gas.

actually, my highway covers 70.8% of earth's surface...

traffic is avoidable

food is abundant

[Old Savage]

A guy who lives on a yacht.

[vancelw]

If you bug out - you will be dead meat with the others stranded on the highways with the first guy to run out of gas.

And who said anything about highways? They make four-wheel drive and wirecutters

You can't stay home because your computer knows where you are, and skynet will find you...

How much RAM is in your computer? If you are running with little, your computer will use part of the hard drive as RAM which is very, very slow. It takes CPU time and the hard driver read/write light flickers nearly non-stop. RAM is cheap and it gives your computer elbow room. You'd be surprised and the difference it will make.

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/

I've been using DMS for over 20 years and never had to use their lifetime warranty.

[Old Savage]

Physical Memory (MB)

Total - 3998
Cached - 1606
Available - 1731
Free 166

This is what appears in the Task Manager Performance tab.

[vancelw]

If you're running Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 you could probably use more. Virtual memory (writing to the HD as RAM) is very slow

[Old Savage]

Thanks Vance - Windows 7 on an HP Lap Top. I'll have to look into that - sometimes it is lightning fast.

[Old Savage]

Here is a picture



this appears to represent uploading the about pic to photobucket.

[Grizz]

see the line called 'processes' with 90 and 91?

this is very very very high, most of those 'processess' are consuming cpu cycles in the background and doing you no good. as a comparison I set up my XP boxes to run abt 10 processes when there are no applications running. thus the background load is much smaller. there is a place that I can't remember the name of that lists the processes that HAVE to run and you can shut off others or make them only run on demand instead of all the time. black something... hopefully someone with more grey-ram can fill in the missing dots.

you don't have enough ram and should maximize it, fill all the slots with as much as your bios and os can handle. unless you are already at the box's limit.

[Old Savage]

Whoa Grizz I love it when you talky dirty but wish I knew what that meant but places to investigate. Thanks.

[Old Savage]

Say Vance, I have an older Toshiba lap top that went bad that I put some extra memory in - what are the chances I could put that memory in my HP lap top?

[vancelw]

Say Vance, I have an older Toshiba lap top that went bad that I put some extra memory in - what are the chances I could put that memory in my HP lap top?

PM the model numbers (as much info as you can give me) and I can attempt to look it up for you. it's not likely but sometimes you get lucky.

[vancelw]

Say Vance, I have an older Toshiba lap top that went bad that I put some extra memory in - what are the chances I could put that memory in my HP lap top?

OS, it looks like they both use the same memory configuration, which is a 200 pin SODIMM. But the Toshiba is older and only used 2GB memory max, so the biggest SODIMMs that could possibly be in it are 1GB each.
The HP can use 8GB, but it also only has 2 slots, so you would have to have 2, 4GB SODIMMs to max it out. You usually aren't supposed to mix and match, so you can't use a 4GB and a 1GB to get to 5GB. The HP probably has 2, 2GB SODIMMs so you would have to pull those out and get two new 4GB ones.

And the bad news is those are 86 bucks a piece.

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/dms-me ... -340us.htm

That's why the computer mfgs put smaller memory cards in. They get them cheap and then you have to shell out the bucks for more RAM. You have to decide if your computer is new enough to spend $172 on. If you get a brand new PC, it will probably only have 4 or 6GB RAM and you will be in the same boat...plus you'll be forced to move to Windows 8

[Old Savage]

Hmmm, Vance thanks for the info and for taking the time to look it up for me. The new computers on sale for 4 to 500 have 8 Gb but I don't want to change. This thing is running pretty fast now with 2.86 Gb used and going between 30 and 80 % of CPU usage. I will have to think that over but I may do it anyway. Thanks again.