Help! Internet Connection Being Hit

[Monica]

I am about at the end of my rope I installed XP Home (with SP2) on my
daughter's computer. Set up her email account via the Internet Connection
Wizard. From the very beginning, her connection shows "active transmission"
even tho IE or OE is not open. None of the (few) programs I've loaded are
set to auto update. I disabled the Security Center so nothing would auto
update there. Windows Auto Update is disabled. Nothing in msconfig/Startup
to indicate Internet access. I spent the afternoon at Black Viper's website
learning what Services I could disable or put on manual. I tried to
download a "sniffer" program to figure out what is accessing. The program
was missing a file and wouldn't install. I redownloaded...same problem.
I've deleted IE temp files. I've run an up to date Ad-Aware. I don't know
what else to do. I've installed Norton's but haven't updated the defs yet
because of the super slow connection. OE isn't configured so no malicious
email has come thru. This may not have anything to do with it but it is
something I'd like to reconcile. In addition to the dialup icon in the
Taskbar, there is a second dialup connection (2 monitors) with a red X over
it. It says something about LAN not connected. I can't remember the exact
wording. I had to disconnect her system to get on mine and send out a SOS
for HELP! I have XP on my computer but don't have the SP2 installed (in
case that is where my problem is)
Thanks for reading,
Monica

 

[Guest]

Hello Monica ,
Here is an idea. Boot to safe mode by restarting the PC and clicking F8
about every second or so until the screen asks you what you want to do. Enter
Safemode then when in safemode click Alt+Ctrl+Del at the same time. This will
bring up the task Manager. Write down the programs listed there. Then restart
the PC in normal mode if the connection still shows active bring up the Task
Manager again and write down programs that were not running in safe mode. Do
a Google search on these programs to see if you can identify them. If you
can't find all the answers on Google post them here. Someone will know what
they are. Hope this helps. Best of luck to you. Also run a Spy-ware check.
You never know.
Ron J

 

[SunniLou]

A good site to see what your "task lists" mean:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

 

[Guest]

1) Under Advanced in Firewall settings if available to you with dial up,
check Security logging . This will write ip address of dropped packets
(unsolicited incoming) which you can, in Command Prompt

ping -a ipa.ipb.ipc.ipd where ipa etc. is address seen in

\windows\pfirewall file. The -a asks for resolution to alpha from numeric
Ip address, to, for example, rbn.real.com.
2) The lan connection means your PC can go high speed. In network
connections, you can disable it. There should be some lan adapter visible
in Hardware/Device Manager, near your dial up adapter.
3) Norton may be the source of unsolicited? The 6 month Norton freebee
provided with my PC is the first thing I remove after system install.
4) Call ISP you pay for Dial service, tell/ask them about it.

 

[Monica]

Oh lordy, it's been a LONG night! I appreciate all the replies. I have the
problem fixed (in a workaround way) but there is a root problem somewhere, I
believe. My first thought (36 hours ago) was the Security Center, I
disabled auto update. Rebooted. The connection was still busy. This
caused me to go off into all other directions looking for the culprit. I've
done scan after scan for viruses, malware, trojans, et al. About 3 hours
ago,someone on another newsgroup suggested I type cmd in the run box and
then type netstat. This gave me the ip addresses of everyone one hitting my
connection. They were both Microsoft updates!! WHAT? I disabled that!
Went back to Security Center...still disabled. Hummmmm. Opened Services
and Auto Updates was ENABLED. Bingo! I disabled Auto Updates, rebooted,
reconnected....it's STILL downloading Back to Services. BITS: Stopped
and changed to Manual. THAT finally solved the problem. But, it sounds to
me like there is a deeper problem. Why do I have to stop 2 services to keep
my connection from connecting to MS updates? Why doesn't disabling it in
the Security Center work? Has this happened to anyone else? If you're on
a high speed connection, you might not notice, but when you're on a 21.6
dialup ( any bandwidth being used is too much. This was enough to
consider drinking an adult beverage! <lol>
Monica