When I log onto your site and just sit here idle doing nothing my
computer is constantly talking to your server.

Why is that?

This doesn’t happen on other sites that I log onto.

I notice this because I keep a close eye on my Internet link so that I
can tell when I have a virus or spyware.

When I first logged onto your site I thought I had picked up a virus or
spyware. But then after some investigation I realized that it’s not a
virus or spyware. I can tell because if I log off JSH the chatter
quits. I can log onto other similar sites and just sit here and there
is no chatter until I actually click on something.

Why does your site chatter with my computer constantly when I’m just
sitting here idle doing nothing?

It’s bugging the heck out of me. Makes me feel like your site is
reading all the files on my hard disk or something. It just acts like
spyware.

Is this a bug in your logon system? You server shouldn’t need to be
constantly talking to my computer like that when I’m not requesting
information. It bugs the heck out of me. I don’t like it when servers
talk to my computer constantly when I’m not requesting information.

It seems to me that your server would be processing a lot of unnecessary
communication too if it does this with everyone that’s logged on. What
is the information that’s being exchanged when I’m just sitting here
idle?

It only happens when I’m logged onto the site. If I log off I can read
your forum with no extraneous chatter, but when I’m logged on it’s just
constantly exchanging information.

This is really making me uncomfortable.

If it’s a bug in your logon system I would really appreciate if you
could clean up the connection. Like I say, if it does this with all
your members it would be in your favor to clean it up. There just
shouldn’t be any reason for the constant chatter when a person is just
sitting here idle. What information is being exchanged???

abra how can u tell if it is chattering? im having serious issues with
my computer.. so im curious as to what u mean?

Abracadabra -

The "chatter" you are seeing is just our instant messaging system
checking to see if anyone wants to instant message with you or not.
There's nothing nefarious behind it. If you turn off your instant
messaging, the chatter will stop.

Hope that helps clarify things.

Mike

Ok, that makes sense.

How do I turn off the instant messaging? I never use that anyway.

To turn off instant messaging, go to the "My Account" tab, then
"Settings", then "Turn off instant messaging"

Yippee!

Thank you Mike!

That was it. After I disabled Instant Messaging, it was still talking,
but then I logged off and back on again and it quit. So that was
defintely it.

That's nice to know.

At least I'll know what all the chatter is now if I decide to turn the
IM feature back on.

You put my mind at ease.

Thank you very much. I'm glad I asked about it.

Buttons wrote:
“abra how can u tell if it is chattering? im having serious issues with
my computer.. so im curious as to what u mean?”

When you’re connected to the Internet you should have a little icon on
your task bar that shows two little computers. The computer on the
lower left of that icon represents your computer, the computer on the
upper right of the icon represents the server you are talking to.

When they are sending information the screens light up. If you are just
sitting there doing nothing they should both have dark screens. When
you request a web page you can see your computer light up as it asks for
the page, and the sever compute light up when it sends it. They will
talk for a while until the page is loaded. After the page is loaded
they should both go back to dark screens again.

If you sit there doing nothing and there is constant chatter between
your computer and a server, that indicates a virus or spyware is
chatting away without your knowledge. I keep my computer clean and my
connection to the internet is very “quiet”. So when I see chatter that
I’m not requesting then I get suspicious of who’s talking to my computer
without my permission.

But as Mike points out, sometimes it can be due to something like an IM
service. If you are running IM software you may experience constant
chatter even when you aren’t using it I guess. I never use IM. I
prefer emails.

thanks abra i recall that icon, but it is not on my
computer... i dont know where it went.. also my task bar closes now
too... kinda irritating... deb

You should be able to set your task bar settings doing the following:

go to START – SETTINGS – TASKBAR

That should bring up a properties window.

Click on the GENERAL tab.

Make sure ALWAYS ON TOP is checked

And AUTO HIDE is unchecked.

That should keep your task bar visible at all times.

Why your internet connection icon is not on your task bar I don’t know.

Sometimes if you have a lot of icon some of them get moved out of site.
There might be a little button with an arrow on it that you need to
click on or drag to find your internet connection icon.

I know some people end up with a ton of little icons on their task bar
from programs they’ve installed. I only have four icons by the clock on
my task bar. I run a really tidy ship. I know exactly what software is
on my computer.

If you close all programs on your computer and then connect to the
Internet. Those two little computers face should be dark. If your
computer is chatting a way at that point you most likely have spyware or
a virus of some sort. If it’s quiet, then open your browser to a blank
page. Once again your computer icons should be perfectly quiet, if they
begin chatting away when you aren’t even looking at a web page you know
you’ve got some kind of spyware or virus at work.

All this assumes that you don’t have some sort of IMing software running
in the background. IMing software running in the background will
continually check for messages, so that’s legitimate communication.

Of course, even if your internet connection is perfectly quiet that
doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have a virus. You could still
have an internal virus of some type that doesn’t use the Internet.

There are other ways of tracking down those beasts, but I don’t want to
get into that here or I’ll just confuse the issue.

Hope this helps. You should be able to find that Internet connection
icon on your task bar. It’s got to be there somewhere. Assuming your
running Windows of some sort.

I keep mine right beside my clock at all times. I'm very aware of it.
It tells me when my computer is talking to someone. I like to know
that.

tks abra again... i saved it the instructions for when i have time need
to get that back on there now that i know what it is for.... love to
learn.... tks a million!!!...deb

Keep in mind you have hackers constantly scanning the internet looking
for misconfigured networks...if u run a firewall and log all traffic u
will see that...back in the day i did same til i realized it wasn't such
a thrill