constant internet traffic?

Question

something is generating constant full bandwidth internet traffic through my dial up connection and i have no idea what it can be. im running windows xp on a laptop, nothing special, and i only use my laptop for emailing/browsing and as a media player. can someone give me a hint how i can detect what software is getting data from the internet? taking up all the bandwidth, very annoying. thanks.

Answer 1

What software do you have installed? Do you use Limewire or any other file share service? Do you have one of those free search toolbars? You may have adware or spyware on your machine. They keep communications open between your machine and the net and continuously pass info back and forth. And if you have more than one of those, they are all sending and receiving data. Scan your machine at Pandasoftware.com and use their active scan. Hope this helps.

The Syko Ward

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

It sounds as if either you have spyware on your PC or maybe even a Trojan virus or both. These can sit unknown on your PC and create a lot of traffic.

I would suggest you definately go to pandasoftware.com then go to home and office solutions then on the left hand menu you will see 'Disinfect your PC for Free.'

If you do not have antivirus software installed I highly advise you to get some. I wrote an article recently published at http://www.webpageaddons.com/blog/2007/02/legislation_home_pc_anti_virus.htm
about the problems Trojan viruses can cause on the Internet. I have used panda for several years and rate it above all others.

As well as antivirus, anyone accessing the Internet should also have a firewall. Zone Alarm is one of the best and one I used for over 5 years having tried many others. I only stopped using it when I adopted the integrated firewall with Panda Titanium.

A good firewall will warn you of hidden programs trying to access the Internet and can be used to track down the programs you have that are causing the problem.

There are also many Spyware removers on the market, a good one I have used is Spybot - Search & Destroy.

Panda Titanium comes with antivirus, spyware remover and a firewall so you can resolve 3 issues in one. I think they still offer a trial if you want to try it and then you can run it on up to 3 PC's under the same license.

Like any antivirus you must keep it up to date. Installing a free antivirus will not do much good if its virus database and the software itself is not kept up to date. Everyday 100's of new viruses come onto the net and so antivirus needs to be kept up to date through automatic daily downloads.

Hope this helps
Tony
http://www.webpageaddons.com