BITS: Am I being spied?

I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while I was
idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had changed
during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk activity,
BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110 MB file
somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system utility
that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me to
wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and transfering it
to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating system.

Miha
Thu Oct 07 10:29:07 CDT 2004

Hi,

BITS is most likely used to transfer (download) patches and service pack.

E.g. if you have Windows XP SP1 BITS will be used to download 260 MB SP2
installation...

Mike

"Neil" <nospam@address.witheld> wrote in message
news:uGB80GIrEHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
> network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while I
was
> idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had changed
> during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk activity,
> BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110 MB
file
> somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system utility
> that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me to
> wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and transfering
it
> to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating system.
>
>

Neil
Thu Oct 07 10:49:31 CDT 2004

That makes sense. I found the SP2 update waiting for me from the update
service a day or 2 later.

"Miha Pihler" <mihap-news@atlantis.si> wrote in message
news:udp$zJIrEHA.868@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> BITS is most likely used to transfer (download) patches and service pack.
>
> E.g. if you have Windows XP SP1 BITS will be used to download 260 MB SP2
> installation...
>
> Mike
>
> "Neil" <nospam@address.witheld> wrote in message
> news:uGB80GIrEHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
>> network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while I
> was
>> idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had changed
>> during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk activity,
>> BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110 MB
> file
>> somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system utility
>> that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me to
>> wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and transfering
> it
>> to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating
>> system.
>>
>>
>
>

Neil
Thu Oct 07 13:38:16 CDT 2004

One question I would like clarified: if BITS is indeed transfering patches
or updates, is BITS being invoked by the OS or by someone managing the
network?

"Miha Pihler" <mihap-news@atlantis.si> wrote in message
news:udp$zJIrEHA.868@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> BITS is most likely used to transfer (download) patches and service pack.
>
> E.g. if you have Windows XP SP1 BITS will be used to download 260 MB SP2
> installation...
>
> Mike
>
> "Neil" <nospam@address.witheld> wrote in message
> news:uGB80GIrEHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
>> network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while I
> was
>> idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had changed
>> during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk activity,
>> BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110 MB
> file
>> somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system utility
>> that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me to
>> wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and transfering
> it
>> to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating
>> system.
>>
>>
>
>

levinson_k
Thu Oct 07 14:55:02 CDT 2004

I'm pretty sure it's by the OS. Even standalone systems with no admin will
use BITS. That's the point of BITS, to allow the OS to set different
priorities and other characteristics to downloads, such as downloading in the
background.


"Neil" wrote:

> One question I would like clarified: if BITS is indeed transfering patches
> or updates, is BITS being invoked by the OS or by someone managing the
> network?
>
> "Miha Pihler" <mihap-news@atlantis.si> wrote in message
> news:udp$zJIrEHA.868@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> > Hi,
> >
> > BITS is most likely used to transfer (download) patches and service pack.
> >
> > E.g. if you have Windows XP SP1 BITS will be used to download 260 MB SP2
> > installation...
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > "Neil" <nospam@address.witheld> wrote in message
> > news:uGB80GIrEHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> >> I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
> >> network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while I
> > was
> >> idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had changed
> >> during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk activity,
> >> BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110 MB
> > file
> >> somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system utility
> >> that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me to
> >> wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and transfering
> > it
> >> to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating
> >> system.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>

Neil
Thu Oct 07 16:55:26 CDT 2004

Thank you for your help.

"Karl Levinson [x y], mvp" <levinson_k@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:2DB02440-F24C-4C9E-83A4-4F1F10F356AA@microsoft.com...
> I'm pretty sure it's by the OS. Even standalone systems with no admin
> will
> use BITS. That's the point of BITS, to allow the OS to set different
> priorities and other characteristics to downloads, such as downloading in
> the
> background.
>
>
> "Neil" wrote:
>
>> One question I would like clarified: if BITS is indeed transfering
>> patches
>> or updates, is BITS being invoked by the OS or by someone managing the
>> network?
>>
>> "Miha Pihler" <mihap-news@atlantis.si> wrote in message
>> news:udp$zJIrEHA.868@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > BITS is most likely used to transfer (download) patches and service
>> > pack.
>> >
>> > E.g. if you have Windows XP SP1 BITS will be used to download 260 MB
>> > SP2
>> > installation...
>> >
>> > Mike
>> >
>> > "Neil" <nospam@address.witheld> wrote in message
>> > news:uGB80GIrEHA.3676@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> >> I am running a Windows XP desktop client on a novel and Windows 2000
>> >> network. I one day noticed my hard drive suddenly get very busy while
>> >> I
>> > was
>> >> idle. I got curious about it and did a search on files that had
>> >> changed
>> >> during the day and found out that at the time of the hard disk
>> >> activity,
>> >> BITS (Background Intelligent Tranfser Servcice) had transfered a 110
>> >> MB
>> > file
>> >> somewhere. From what I have learned, BITS is an operationg system
>> >> utility
>> >> that is used to set up file transfers by administrators. This leads me
>> >> to
>> >> wonder if somone is acquiring information from my system and
>> >> transfering
>> > it
>> >> to themselves, or is it merely a routine function of the operating
>> >> system.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>