Unknown broadband usage

[holmslaw]

Just overcome an odd problem, my wireless laptop was transferring over 1G of data per day while on standby. I know it was the laptop because if I turned it off the transfers stopped.

Task manager said nothing running - but there was.

Ran malwarebytes, spybot, avg all said nothing wrong.

Restored to last month and everything now ok.

Anyone know what the problem was?

 

[Monkeh]

Now where'd I leave my crystal ball..

 

[tapir]

Open a command prompt (START>>RUN>>type cmd)
when DOS opens, type:

netstat -b and hit return

this will list all incoming and outgoing network connections. that may give you an idea where to start.

do you have any Torrent or download applications running automatically on start up?

 

[timtheenchanter]

but on standby???

surely all legit software goes into standby with the machine, if it was just while the machine has been left on etc, I could understand it a bit more, but just on standby???

 

[joinerjohn]

Just overcome an odd problem, my wireless laptop was transferring over 1G of data per day while on standby. I know it was the laptop because if I turned it off the transfers stopped.

Task manager said nothing running - but there was.

Ran malwarebytes, spybot, avg all said nothing wrong.

Restored to last month and everything now ok.

Anyone know what the problem was?

When you say standby mode, do you mean like sleep mode when you have not been using it for say 15 mins (or whatever you have it set to). If this is the case then it may well be transferring data you have already requested. You say it stops when you turn it off so obviously on standby it's not actually off is it?

 

[holmslaw]

tapir when doing the 'netstat -b' what would you expect to see. I get varying reports, sometimes it shows 8 or more connections see. But the last time it said two connections, DIYnot was not listed althought I#m logged in and typing this post.
But as I said the problem has now stopped.

Sorry, think I misled people, the problem was happening all the time, it was transferring over 1Gig of data everyday.

 

[Monkeh]

netstat is completely, totally, and utterly useless after the fact. And it's also entirely normal for it not to show connections to websites, because once the site is loaded, there is no connection.

Unless you'd installed a bittorrent client or some other P2P filesharing software, chances are your system was infected and part of a botnet.

 

[tapir]

netstat is completely, totally, and utterly useless after the fact. And it's also entirely normal for it not to show connections to websites, because once the site is loaded, there is no connection.

Unless you'd installed a bittorrent client or some other P2P filesharing software, chances are your system was infected and part of a botnet.

After the fact, it isn't much use, but if there's a Gb of traffic over the course of the day when the PC is not being used, then I'd say it's pretty useful, because you stand a very good chance of capturing something.

 

[Monkeh]

netstat is completely, totally, and utterly useless after the fact. And it's also entirely normal for it not to show connections to websites, because once the site is loaded, there is no connection.

Unless you'd installed a bittorrent client or some other P2P filesharing software, chances are your system was infected and part of a botnet.

After the fact, it isn't much use, but if there's a Gb of traffic over the course of the day when the PC is not being used, then I'd say it's pretty useful, because you stand a very good chance of capturing something.

... But it's already after the fact.