Local area connection icon

[Dale Ireland]

My Local Area Connection icon in the taskbar indicates that I am constantly
receiving and when I click on it to show the details it indicates a steady
stream of incoming packets. I have two other dell pc's on the same broadband
cable TV connection at another location that don't show this steady
receiving. This is a new Dimension 2400 with XP Pro. I have tried disabling
everything I can find like windows messenger, antivirus program, etc etc but
nothing seems to stop the steady packet reception. It doesn't seem to be
causing any problem but seeing that icon constantly lit up is very odd. What
could be causing this? It is not connected to a router but directly to the
cable. The Dell pc it replaced was not having this problem. What could be
communicating in the background? I have Norton AV 2004, latest defintions
and it is not a virus.

 

[Chuck]

My Local Area Connection icon in the taskbar indicates that I am constantly
receiving and when I click on it to show the details it indicates a steady
stream of incoming packets. I have two other dell pc's on the same broadband
cable TV connection at another location that don't show this steady
receiving. This is a new Dimension 2400 with XP Pro. I have tried disabling
everything I can find like windows messenger, antivirus program, etc etc but
nothing seems to stop the steady packet reception. It doesn't seem to be
causing any problem but seeing that icon constantly lit up is very odd. What
could be causing this? It is not connected to a router but directly to the
cable. The Dell pc it replaced was not having this problem. What could be
communicating in the background? I have Norton AV 2004, latest defintions
and it is not a virus.

Dale,

If you have a computer directly connected to the internet, chances are
it's seeing a LOT of trash traffic from worm infected computers, trash
that would be blocked by a router automatically. See
<http://isc.sans.org/> for daily updates about that.

If you don't think that's the case, get Port Explorer (free) from
<http://www.diamondcs.com.au/portexplorer/index.php?page=home>, that
will show you what port is being addressed by the traffic, and what
process is servicing it. Then Process Explorer (free) from
<http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml> will help
you research any questionable process.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Dale Ireland]

Thanks, I will let you know the result

Dale,

If you have a computer directly connected to the internet, chances are
it's seeing a LOT of trash traffic from worm infected computers, trash
that would be blocked by a router automatically. See
<http://isc.sans.org/> for daily updates about that.

If you don't think that's the case, get Port Explorer (free) from
<http://www.diamondcs.com.au/portexplorer/index.php?page=home>, that
will show you what port is being addressed by the traffic, and what
process is servicing it. Then Process Explorer (free) from
<http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml> will help
you research any questionable process.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.