Periodically, in the upload transfers window, I notice files being uploaded that are not mine. Sometimes these are video files, with titles that I know are not mine! Lots of times there is just a file icon and no transfer speed listed. What is going on? Thanks in advance for your insight.

The odd file icons with no transfer speed listed seem to be a search query from a different Gnutella client.

As for the files being uploaded that are not yours, including the videos with the file titles that you know are not yours. The only way a file (with a name) will appear in the transfer window is if another PC (with a Gnutella program like Xolox, BearShare, LimeWire, PEERanha, etc…) has detected that file in the past on your computer (during a search), and that user decided to download it.

Are you the only one that has had access to that computer (no teenage boys )? If you are seeing a transfer speed listed with these files, then they are on your hard drive/network. If there is no transfer speed listed with the file, either it was on your HD (and was removed), or a download was started then canceled. If you see a file being transferred then try using search to find its location on your PC. You should also check “History” and “Documents” to see which files another person in your home/office may have been accessing. Just because someone in your household says they haven’t been downloading these files doesn’t make it so.

If someone is careful, they can cover their tracts well enough that no one (other than the FED’s or a repair shop ) will ever be able to tell what files have been on a HD.

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With Desperation comes Inspiration.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I will follow your suggestions! I will keep sharing with XoloX.

another idea might be to check which folders on your computer are set to be shared. that way you know exectly where any thing that you are sharing is from and also nothing that you dont want shared will be available to others.

you can do this by going to tools>prefernces>sharing in xolox.

xg

XoloX_girl:

I am fairly particular about setting up my directories. And, I have XoloX set up to go to one directory with a handful of sub-directories and then files.

So, I thought that I had limited access of other Gnutella users to those files. I searched the directory (and the rest of my hard drive space) for the one title I kept seeing. No Luck.

There were some previous video files that I had deleted, but the titles did not match.

I am interested in the idea mentioned earlier that if there was a file with this title that was deleted and the hard drive had not been written over yet in that area, then gnutella users could still access this file. Would this also be true for a partial download that was terminated (at least for XoloX users)?

The issue seems to have resolved itself, as I do not see the file heading out anymore. But, this did kind of shake my confidence in the system. I do not want to be paranoid, but I also do not want people hiding stuff on my machine.

Your explanations and insight are very helpful. . .

Once when I was downloading “Tim Hunter – the age of magic part 2” I cancelled the download. I reviewed “part 1” and found out it was a fake. Someone else was already uploading the “part 2”. When I cancelled the 72% completed download, the other users upload continued. In the TEMP folder Xolox had changed the (Tim Hunter) XLX file type to a (Tim Hunter) PAR file type. These PAR files are only intended to remain in the TEMP folder until the person uploading from you finishes their download or break the connection (though I did see Xolox hiccup and leave a PAR file in the TEMP folder once).

__________________
With Desperation comes Inspiration.

sorry if what i said sounded like i thought that you didnt know what you're doing! it wasnt meant that way. its just that i sometimes find that it is the simplest things that i forget to check when something goes wrong and there are some people who dont know what their computer shares. its just normally best to check everything. again sorry, and i hope that u sort out where the files are coming from

xg

xg:

Actually, most of the time, I don't really know what I am doing. I did not mean to sound snooty (sorrry).

I just wanted to explain that I thought I had cordoned off an area for sharing.

I will take all of the help that I can get. And, this forum has been great! Thanks for the support.

Any other ideas on this topic?