Torrent Downloaders

[Rich-M]

I must admit I am not a "crazed music downloader" and in fact never do such things but I know that Security Mods will not work with systems until all P2P downloaders are removed and none of us can guaranty safety when such things are in play.

The other day I had a client who is a DJ by trade (but not evidently highly experienced at it as his living standards left me somewhat uncomfortable) and I had to leave a Torrent Downloader in because he said it is the only way he can download music for what he does. I cleaned the system and it was running fine as it had examples of almost every form of Malware and Adware known to man and it was running fine when I left.

Within an hour he calls me it is again slow as molasses and every single internet move takes forever. I did install Emsisoft AntiMalware as well as Wot and Ad Blockers etc.....his internet is Comcast but running a fairly new wireless Netgear "N" adapter and the speeds I saw were all over the place from as low as 1 Mbps to as high as 26 and there was no rhyme nor reason for that I saw. The router was about 4 rooms away on a straight line and I did try raising the adapter using usb extender cords up in the air no more then 15' as I know the usb limitation which helped at times but the overall affect wasn't the best.

Could the Torrent downloader be causing all this?

What ways can he download music more safely and he has sites he pays for he goes to to download from so I don't think it is being free that is the whole cause and effect here or should he just download from them without the downloader? I am not quite sure where to go here and I might add, this is possible "buyers remorse" as he tries to wiggle out for the costs to me also. I left with another project an old hard drive to remove Pictures from and there are a ton and intended to install the drive as an extra on his desktop to hold files as his desktop is only a 40 gb drive even though the system has 4 gb ram and a decent Intel Core 2 Duo Cpu. I had to remove about 7 gb from the drive to relieve it before I did anything as it was "red lining" and couldn't have a swap file the way it was but I don't think he managed to crap that up that much again in an hour. he might be trying to get me to cave on labor for copying out files and formatting drive is what I am suggesting though I know he will want them as he has no copies and there are a ton!

Thanks in advance!

 

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

Absolutely the torrent downloader is causing this.

These downloaders open up all kinds of ports because you are expected to seed if you are downloading.
The only safe way to get music is to pay for it and he doesn't need a torrent downloader for that.
He is probably seeding even when he is not actively downloading and doesn't even know it.

I have had systems in here with P2P downloaders and you couldn't access the internet at all.
Removing the downloader removed the problem. Cleanup was secondary but of course, neccessary.

 

[AWS]

One other thing. There is a setting to limit the amount of bandwidth that the app uses. It is set by default on most torrent clients to use the full pipe for uploading. Since he is downloading music then he is more than likely using up all his upload which will drastically slow his download speed. The fluctuations you see is because of this.

I use uTorrent, an older version before they slammed it with all the junk ads, to download Linux ISOs and other legal things. BitTorrent is much faster for downloading than downloading from FTP.

 

[Rich-M]

Thanks Cindy it is what I thought. And Bob you hit the nail right on the head because what I forgot to say is most of the speed tests I ran showed the upload speed faster than the download speed with the excpetion of the one time I crossed 26 MBPS.

 

[GimboV]

He absolutely doesn't need to d/l from torrent sites, I know many a DJ and he can subscribe to services which offer he all the music he will need and are free from any issues. One such service is offered from a software he may use. http://www.virtualdj.com/ Or, if he is more professional then you have interpreted then he has other venues. If you need more info I can check the ChiTown DJ scene and fill you in on the more pro type offerings.

 

[Rich-M]

Thanks for that Gimbo. I have sent him now 3 unanswered email but only in a few days and I think my worst fears are showing up. If he does finally contact me and is interested in moving forward, I will post back and ask you to do just that but I am getting the feeling he is in over his head and looking to bail himself out.

 

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

Just got one of these in. Completely botched with malware and the first thing I see on the desktop is BitTorrent.

 

[Rich-M]

It has now been 5 days since he first emailed him and 4 email I have sent him to help, the first of which gave him a path out which was to mail me $50 and I would send him his hard drive and 2 dvds with files on them and we are done. Funny he called me within 5 hours his system was still slow, but can't respond in 5 days to the solutions? I think we are just done. I feel so bad he has almost 4 Gb of pictures he said he doesn't have copies of and I just found out I can turn him off with Emsisoft and reuse the code as well (He didn't quite have enough money to pay me that day so there is a balance and of course he has no checking account, deadbeats never do)...win win my side!