I'm running a Macbook Pro circa 2007 with OSX 10.6.8 and Firefox 27.0.1, and just had a circumstance that really puzzled me. I have a Hughesnet satellite modem with wireless router that I connect to via the airport, and I use Little Snitch software in the demo mode so I know and have to approve which software can send info through the internet connection., but the demo mode had just timed out and terminated and within a half hour of that the computer fans started speeding up to max and the CPU got blazing hot (+200 degF).
Worried, I looked at the activity monitor and it was showing lots of internet activity even though I wasn't doing anything on the internet at the time, and I have all my software updates set to manual because otherwise they would use up my allotted daytime bandwidth and leave none for me. I'd already completed manual software updates during the nightly free time recently. Fearing my computer was hijacked & out of my control, I turned the airport off to terminate the internet connection, BUT IT DIDN'T TURN OFF, and though the indicator in the top right of the screen said it was off, packets were still streaming back & forth like crazy on the activity monitor, and the poor thing was still overheating. So I rebooted the computer, and when it came back up there was no internet activity, and things started cooling down, back to normal again.
Though I'm no techie, this seems to me like my computer has been hijacked by some virus that has taken control of the airport and is feeding me lies about the internet connection status, so that it can use my computer for sending out its own messages. Has anyone heard of a virus that prevents the airport from being turned off, and what should I do about it? I'm afraid to back up my data with my time machine, though its been months since that was done, for fear I'd overwrite a virus-free state of the time machine files with a virus laden one, but I also hate to do something to clean up the machine without backing up my files, and lose a bunch of data. Is there virus protection software that could surgically search out and remove only the virus from my machine and leave most everything else untouched?
Any advice is welcome,
Christina
Worried, I looked at the activity monitor and it was showing lots of internet activity even though I wasn't doing anything on the internet at the time, and I have all my software updates set to manual because otherwise they would use up my allotted daytime bandwidth and leave none for me. I'd already completed manual software updates during the nightly free time recently. Fearing my computer was hijacked & out of my control, I turned the airport off to terminate the internet connection, BUT IT DIDN'T TURN OFF, and though the indicator in the top right of the screen said it was off, packets were still streaming back & forth like crazy on the activity monitor, and the poor thing was still overheating. So I rebooted the computer, and when it came back up there was no internet activity, and things started cooling down, back to normal again.
Though I'm no techie, this seems to me like my computer has been hijacked by some virus that has taken control of the airport and is feeding me lies about the internet connection status, so that it can use my computer for sending out its own messages. Has anyone heard of a virus that prevents the airport from being turned off, and what should I do about it? I'm afraid to back up my data with my time machine, though its been months since that was done, for fear I'd overwrite a virus-free state of the time machine files with a virus laden one, but I also hate to do something to clean up the machine without backing up my files, and lose a bunch of data. Is there virus protection software that could surgically search out and remove only the virus from my machine and leave most everything else untouched?
Any advice is welcome,
Christina