Our native mobile app has a new name: Fora Communities. Learn more.

Weired Problem

341 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by j.m., May 23, 2004

dcmccabe

Discussion Starter · May 22, 2004

My question is - Is there anyway to "throttle back" the upload bandwith?

The other day I was receiving a show via IVS on the Living Room ReplayTV. Without knowing it my Family Room ReplayTV was sending out something. I didn't send anything. My wireless ISP received complaints from other users that their upload speed was real low. The ISP checked and found that my upload was taking up to 800-900 Kbs of 1 MB bandwith. So the ISP manually throttled me back to 128 Kbs and notified me. I had all of my computers off and only the 2 ReplayTVs connected to the network. As soon as I disconnected the Family Room RTV the ISP saw that the bandwith on the system went back to normal. The ISP wasn't familiar with RTV and asked if there was a way to manually throttle back the RTV upload. I told him no way that I knew of. The ISP determined the IP address of where it was going - comcast.com. Initially, the ISP thought I had a trojan or virus, but I checked my computer and it was clean. Besides, the computers were off during all of this. Can RTV get a virus or trojan?

Any ideas?

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

j.m.

· #2 · May 22, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by dcmccabe
My question is - Is there anyway to "throttle back" the upload bandwith?

The other day I was receiving a show via IVS on the Living Room ReplayTV. Without knowing it my Family Room ReplayTV was sending out something. I didn't send anything.

Are you sure you weren't sending a show via IVS?

Quote:

Besides, the computers were off during all of this. Can RTV get a virus or trojan?

Theoretically, yes. Practically speaking, no way. However, if you made the mistake of either putting your ReplayTV into the DMZ or forwarding port 80 TCP to it, then a person could access your ReplayTV in various ways over the Internet that *could* account for what you saw.

See less See more

Creech

· #3 · May 22, 2004

I think j.m. is right. Sounds to me like you were sending a show.

Somebody would have to WANT to write a trojan or virus for the ReplayTV and the installed user base really doesn't make it worthwhile. The chance that your ReplayTV has one is so remote as to be almost nil.

dcmccabe

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 22, 2004

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I am sure that I wasn't sending something. How would I check to see if I was sending ?

No, I am not in the DMZ. I'm glad to hear that it is not likely that I would have a trojan or virus.

l8er

· #5 · May 22, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by dcmccabe
Yes, I am sure that I wasn't sending something.

AFAIK, there is no way for the ReplayTV to be uploading or sending something if you did not inititiate it. It just isn't possible.

j.m.

· #6 · May 22, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by l8er
AFAIK, there is no way for the ReplayTV to be uploading or sending something if you did not inititiate it. It just isn't possible.

Actually, there a lot of ways this could happen. ReplayTV uploads/sends information on its own all the time--e.g. net connects, RDDNS updates, etc. However, most of these shouldn't involve sending any significant amount of data for a prolonged period of time such as what dcmccabe describes. However, I do believe that with the correct information and know how it might be possible for someone to download a file from a RTV using IVS without you ever having initiated a send... It is very unlikely this happened here though IMO (unless the ReplayTV was in the DMZ or had port 80 forwarded to it).

l8er

· #7 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by j.m.
Actually, there a lot of ways this could happen. .

Good grief, the something in question would have to be a show (considering the bandwidth being consumed for any length of time) and there's no way for that to happen without being initiated on the sending end. (Unless there's some underground hack to steal shows from unsuspecting ReplayTVs.

)

Believe it or not, I know that data is exchanged between the ReplayTV and the DNNA servers, but I would guess they're not residing at a comcast.com IP.

j.m.

· #8 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by l8er
Good grief, the something in question would have to be a show (considering the bandwidth being consumed for any length of time) and there's no way for that to happen without being initiated on the sending end. (Unless there's some underground hack to steal shows from unsuspecting ReplayTVs. )

There actually is a way for that to happen without it being initiated on the sender's side. More than that, I won't say; but it is possible AFAICT. It's not even particularly hard...

Quote:

Believe it or not, I know that data is exchanged between the ReplayTV and the DNNA servers, but I would guess they're not residing at a comcast.com IP.

I know you knew that, but you said "there is no way."

There are ways; but as you note, they shouldn't involve the amount of data seemingly transferred here and shouldn't be sending to Comcast.

See less See more

Wrecks

· #9 · May 23, 2004

Somebody might be able to initiate the equivalent of streaming a show over the internet, but if port 80 is not being forwarded they would have to get past the router somehow.

j.m.

· #10 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Wrecks
Somebody might be able to initiate the equivalent of streaming a show over the internet, but if port 80 is not being forwarded they would have to get past the router somehow.

Our discussion relates to the possibility of an IVS show transfer without it having being initiated by the sender (at least I think it does). When one is using IVS, then your point is a non-issue because in that case one must have the IVS port forwarded to the ReplayTV. Thus, that provides an easy way in past the router.

Jeff D

· #11 · May 23, 2004

Why not just check the 243-zone network montior to see if it's sending stuff?

And what about configuring the replay to go though some sort of proxy and use the proxy to throttle the transfers? I don't know how to do such a thing, but is it possible?

WannabeSQ

· #12 · May 23, 2004

Well, it may have been a really old send, that finally got through. I remember a while back someone had a replay not plugged in for a while, while moving, and a couple months later plugged it in, and it started downloading a show it never finished before it was turned off last.

[Rant] I would be seriously pissed if my ISP throttled back my speed. I am paying for the speed, I should be able to use it. They can come up with all the BS they want saying "most users don't use that much" or "It was abnormally high bandwidth" BS. Sure, we might be using more than others, but just because they got DSL/Cable to surf the web faster and hardly use a spec of that bandwidth, doesn't mean they should punish the people who do. I have heard of horror stories about comcast users getting their accounts suspended for "bandwidth abuse" and they have no black and white number that constitutes abuse. If they want to put it in writing how much is "too much" and make you sign that when you get it installed fine. But as soon as you advertise the speed and always on as well as other of broadband's benefits, you can't turn around and say that you can't use it. [/Rant]

See less See more

sfhub

· #13 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by WannabeSQ
I would be seriously pissed if my ISP throttled back my speed. I am paying for the speed, I should be able to use it. They can come up with all the BS they want saying "most users don't use that much" or "It was abnormally high bandwidth"

You understand this was a wireless ISP where bandwidth is much more

limited than dsl or cable modem right?

sfhub

· #14 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by l8er
Good grief, the something in question would have to be a show (considering the bandwidth being consumed for any length of time) and there's no way for that to happen without being initiated on the sending end.

The something consuming your bandwidth could be other than a show.

If you'd like to provide your ISN, it can be demonstrated

j.m.

· #15 · May 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by sfhub
The something consuming your bandwidth could be other than a show.

If you'd like to provide your ISN, it can be demonstrated

Very true. I forgot to mention this other little loophole.

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.