Steam Uploading things..?

[[MTX]Rooster]

The other night our home network was crippled by at the time some unknown event. I went around and reset the router and cablemodem. It persisted. I then started disconnecting PC's systematically and watching the bandwidth monitor until I found the offending machine. Leery of a virus, I shut it down immediately until I had time to investigate today.

Turns out, the application sending a steady stream nonstop is in fact Steam. It is uploading non-stop when running, unless I tell it I have the minimum connection speed (56k ROFL). I know there is cloud syncing, but this just doesn't stop. Furthermore the account/system running on said PC has only a few games on it, with minimal cloud storage as compared to another one, which has several cloud enabled games.. Just trying to explain I don't believe it is a cloud issue. That said, I can't think of any other logical explanation as to why the steam interface is non-stop uploading. Help? I considered there might be a torrent-like function to share core game install files? But I don't see any mention of that on searches, nor any setting regarding that type of feature in the settings.

What is steam doing and how can I stop it while keeping my connection speed accurately set?

[wraty]

gold saxxy BEST!

[[MTX]Rooster]

Wow, yeah. Thanks for that, real helpful.

[Ed]

A bit late to the party...actually REALLY late but whatever, when I notice my ping take a hit and see it's steam uploading for some reason, I just pull out and reinsert my network cable

[Donoghu]

Bringing out this post as it's still an "issue" of some sort.

While it's true that Steam doesn't upload big files, the problem is that it constantly upload.
I have checked what's moving out and it seems that it's a constant exchange between the Steam server and the PC at a speed that is equivalent to 1/3 of the allowed download speed.

- If you're downloading a game, Steam will use both your download to get the game file, but will also use as much of your upload capacity as possible to get confirmation packages. This include Steam updates.

- Of course, it will also upload Steam Cloud related files if you install or quit an application which include the system.

- If you're not downloading any files not quitting any application (games or software) which include Steam Cloud, it will upload for around 156ko of data per installed game + around 60ko for the Steam client itself every minutes. This is how the Steam client knows if one of your game is outdated and require an update.

- Workshops is managed separately from games (yet are linked on the interface) and require also some download/upload every minutes depending on the number of subscription you activated. (around 8ko-16ko of data per subs)

- Depending on the amount of groups you're part of, there's around 60ko of data uploaded and downloaded every minute per groups as to ensure you're "up to date" with events and such.

- Again, if you're in offline mode, no upload occure at all. (logically)

So, the amount of download/upload highly varies on what you're doing, but also on what is included with your steam account. Depending on the number of games you have installed and groups you have joined, it can rise quite a lot for the most active Steam players.