{"id":1675,"date":"2011-05-01T17:53:13","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2012-03-11T16:02:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T20:02:17","slug":"what-does-it-mean-when-google-says-unusual-traffic-from-your-computer-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/what-does-it-mean-when-google-says-unusual-traffic-from-your-computer-network\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean when Google says “”unusual traffic from your computer network”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carole is getting a strange message from Google<\/strong>
\nHELP… the last few days when ever I do a search in Google Chrome, this warning comes up “unusual traffic from your computer network”. \u00a0What is going on. \u00a0I haven’t been on it for hours, and then when I started doing searches, after a couple, this comes up. \u00a0 \u00a0Says something like I am blocked. \u00a0Oh, and I can fill in that box, can’t remember what they call it. \u00a0Also they want to make sure I am a real person not a robotic! \u00a0I don’t get this at all. \u00a0I never had trouble on IE8 like this, could put in many searches, one after another, but can’t do it on Chrome. \u00a0 I \u00a0still have IE8, so will go back to that I guess. I would really\u00a0appreciate\u00a0your take on this.<\/p>\n

Our answer<\/strong>
\nWhen Google detects that a computer on your network may be sending automated traffic to Google they may show the following message: “Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network.” Automated queries are against theri Terms of Service.<\/p>\n

The error page displays a CAPTCHA (a squiggly word with a box below it). To continue using Google; you need to \u00a0type the squiggly word into the box to continue — it’s how Google knows you’re a human, not a robot.<\/p>\n

If you don’t see a CAPTCHA image or if you continue to encounter the CAPTCHA over and over…your computer is most likely infected with malware, spyware, a Trojan or has become part of a botnet.<\/p>\n

The first thing you should do is check for malware on your computer: Malicious software, sometimes bundled with free downloads without your knowledge, can trigger Google to show this message.<\/p>\n

Make sure you have adequate antispyware protection. That would be one good primary antispyware and one good secondary antispyware\/antimalware. We currently recommend SUPERAntiSpyware PRO<\/a> – but you can use the freeware version<\/a>, along with the free version of Malwarebytes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Make sure you use a good antivirus. We currently recommend Microsoft Security Essentials (Free)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALWAYS keep your security software up-to-date as well.<\/p>\n

You should also scan your computer once a week with a good online scanner – There are several. One we’ve used before is http:\/\/housecall.trendmicro.com\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n

In any case, if you’re getting a warning about suspicious network traffic, it almost always indicates your computer has been compromised either by an intentionally installed “Freeware” program which contains bundled spyware (like SmileyCentral, Facemoods, and many others) or by a Trojan or Botnet that infected your computer when you clicked on an attachment in a phishing or spam email.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carole is getting a strange message from Google HELP… the last few days when ever I do a search in Google Chrome, this warning comes up “unusual traffic from your computer network”. \u00a0What is going on. \u00a0I haven’t been on it for hours, and then when I started doing searches, after a couple, this comes up. \u00a0 \u00a0Says\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1058,1057,1059],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}