My dad's iMac is really slow - it keeps uploading something

[felixen]

Hi,

My dad's iMac has been running slow lately. So he just called now and said that when he went to the"activity overview" thing and clicked network, the graph shows a constant high upload, while the download is running normally (i.e. almost nonexistent as he wasn't downloading anything right now). We figure this might be the reason why things are running slow.

First thing I thought was it could be a virus maybe, so he said he had this free virus program installed called iAntivirus. As far as I know one virus on osx is hidden in a free anti virus program, but I googled this and couldn't find anything - plus he's had it installed for a very long time.


So what do you guys think could cause this upload? He had dropbox a while back but deleted it because he thought that was what caused the mac running slow. So right now, without dropbox, i don't see what could be uploading (constantly).

Any suggestions? I promised him I would seek help here

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[kittykat241]

Hiya,

I don't know much about the uploading your Dad's experiencing... however - Macs already come with inbuilt virus protection and there are few and far between viruses that have managed to penetrate the Mac system.

One of the worst Mac viruses that have managed is something called Mac Keeper, which prompts you to download Mac Keeper to "clean" your Mac. It does just this, wiping your complete hard drive sparkly clean. Leaving nothing left. However, this requires you to physically click on the popup that springs up and download it yourself. So again, as said before, there is not any known viruses which can penetrate your mac without you knowing - and helping.

So, your Dad shouldn't have installed any virus software at all, so i would look into the virus protection once more and find out if uninstalling that helps anything. But don't panic, as like i said, Macs are famous for being virus free, I have had my Mac for over a year now, without installing any 3rd party virus protection and not had a single problem. So don't worry about ridding your Mac of this protection.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hiya,

I don't know much about the uploading your Dad's experiencing... however - Macs already come with inbuilt virus protection and there are few and far between viruses that have managed to penetrate the Mac system.

One of the worst Mac viruses that have managed is something called Mac Keeper, which prompts you to download Mac Keeper to "clean" your Mac. It does just this, wiping your complete hard drive sparkly clean. Leaving nothing left. However, this requires you to physically click on the popup that springs up and download it yourself. So again, as said before, there is not any known viruses which can penetrate your mac without you knowing - and helping.

So, your Dad shouldn't have installed any virus software at all, so i would look into the virus protection once more and find out if uninstalling that helps anything. But don't panic, as like i said, Macs are famous for being virus free, I have had my Mac for over a year now, without installing any 3rd party virus protection and not had a single problem. So don't worry about ridding your Mac of this protection.

While kittykat241's post is well intentioned it is incorrect.

There are zero (yes that's none, zip, nada, they don't exist) viruses for OS X in the wild! There are however a few trojans. The major difference is a trojan has to be consciously downloaded and installed by the computer user. That doesn't mean some are not clever and can fool the naive. The general rule of thumb is NEVER download something to your computer (any operating system) unless it comes from trusted source. If you get an e-mail, pop-up or any other message advising you MUST download something then it should not be trusted.

 

[GGJstudios]

First thing I thought was it could be a virus maybe

On a Mac, that's the last thing you should think.

As far as I know one virus on osx is hidden

False. There are none.

You don't need any 3rd party antivirus app to keep your Mac malware-free. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. You cannot infect your Mac simply by visiting a website, unzipping a file, opening an email attachment or joining a network. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which cannot infect your Mac unless you actively install them, and they can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

1. Make sure your built-in Mac firewall is enabled in System Preferences > Security > Firewall
   
   
2. Uncheck "Open "safe" files after downloading" in Safari > Preferences > General
   
   
3. Uncheck "Enable Java" in Safari > Preferences > Security. Leave this unchecked until you visit a trusted site that requires Java, then re-enable only for your visit to that site. (This is not to be confused with JavaScript, which you should leave enabled.)
   
   
4. Check your DNS settings by reading this.
   
   
5. Be careful to only install software from trusted, reputable sites. Never install pirated software. If you're not sure about an app, ask in this forum before installing.
   
   
6. Never let someone else have physical access to install anything on your Mac.
   
   
7. Always keep your Mac and application software updated. Use Software Update for your Mac software. For other software, it's safer to get updates from the developer's site or from the menu item "Check for updates", rather than installing from any notification window that pops up while you're surfing the web.

That's all you need to do to keep your Mac completely free of any virus, trojan, spyware, keylogger, or other malware. You don't need any 3rd party software to keep your Mac secure.

So what do you guys think could cause this upload? He had dropbox a while back but deleted it because he thought that was what caused the mac running slow. So right now, without dropbox, i don't see what could be uploading (constantly).

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources. Start quitting processes (starting with the ones that show User as the logged in user (not root). Keep an eye on the network activity as you quit processes one by one. You should be able to identify which process is causing the network activity.

And be sure to uninstall iAntiVirus. You don't need it.

The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program​

there are few and far between viruses that have managed to penetrate the Mac system.

There are exactly zero Mac OS X viruses in the wild. Read above.

One of the worst Mac viruses that have managed is something called Mac Keeper, which prompts you to download Mac Keeper to "clean" your Mac.

MacKeeper is not a virus or any form of malware. It's simply a quite unnecessary app that users can screw up their system with, if they use it improperly. It doesn't prompt you to download it.

 

[DaveNinja]

I had a similar problem on my iMac; constant uploading of temp files. Turned out to be something my networked Canon printer was doing. The uploading would stop as soon as i pulled the power plug on the printer so i figured it was just crappy canon software.

 

[stevenb]

Are you running any back-up software? I had a problem with Carbonite back-up. It seems that if you have a lot of files, it just runs and runs and runs. It just about melted down my MacBook Pro before I disabled it. It is a known problem.

 

[felixen]

Not other than Time Machine once in a while, but he doesn't have it running automatically.

I sent him the posts from you guys, so it's interesting to see if he can fix it now. Thanks for your replies (and if there are more suggestions though, keep em coming)