Query about monitoring unknown Internet traffic

[Joel Rees]

On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 6:50 AM,  <silver.bullet at zoho.com> wrote:
> Hi Bret,
>
> the kind of addresses involved usually leads to the culprit. You can
> monitor Internet traffic and see the addresses using Wireshark.
>
> Assumed you should be a Firefox user, then only open Firefox and
> Wireshark.
>
> Then search for "google" in Firefox's about:config and delete all
> default google entries.
>
> Monitor Firefox with Wireshark again.
>
> Are you running any update daemons? Are you running phone home
> software, e.g. Sylpheed without disabling phone home or Ardour not from
> official repositories?

Ive noticed a number of people mentioning Sylpheed's "phone home
feature", and I've wondered what it was and where the setting to
disable it might be.

So I went over and launched it and, without thinking, clicked the "OK"
button when it said, "There is a new version, don't you want to check
it out?" and found myself looking at the Sylpheed site's front page.

And I said to myself, "Oh. Yeah. That."

However, that by itself would not explain 200kbps down and 20kbps up.

> Are you using what Richard Stallman calls Ubuntu
> Spyware? Even a weather applet gets information from the Internet.
>
> The phone home phenomena isn't just an issue for your iPhone, it's also
> reality for many Linux applications and in addition Ubuntu is disputed
> regarding what Richard Stallman calls Ubuntu Spyware.
>
> First rule out that you are not carelessly using software such as
> Firefox from official repositories, before searching unknown spyware.
>
> Regards,
> Ralf

-- 
Joel Rees

Be careful when you look at conspiracy.
Arm yourself with knowledge of yourself, as well:
http://reiisi.blogspot.jp/2011/10/conspiracy-theories.html