What is my PC downloading?

Xeroid · August 5th, 2002, 01:10 AM

I just noticed this Friday. I have a tripple boot OS on my PC and when I boot to WinXP and make a dialup connection (no broadband in my area), my PC starts downloading forever. I don't have the problem if I boot to Win98 or Mandrake 8.2.

I have WinXP home edition. I can't imagine what could be downloading. I have not tried to download anything I can think of. I've been online 1:45 and it's received 6,895,330 bytes and still downloading.

When I do a search for new files in Windows Explorer I see nothing unusual. The only thing I can think of that accesses the internet automatically is Norton AV 2002 to get its updates. Windows automatic update is turned off.

Any Ideas of how to find out what's going on? What ever it is, it must be a fairly large file. Perhaps I'm going offline before the download is complete, because when I reboot to XP the received activity starts again.

Mike

August 5th, 2002, 01:14 AM

NAV should ask before it starts to d/l, and if it is NAV if you open the tray icon it should show you what it is doing.

Sounds more like a windows update of some kind. Do you get an error message of any kind when you disconnect?

Maybe its spyware/adware. Try running adaware if you haven't already and see what it finds. But it souns too big for spyware.

Cheers
Mick

FreakyOCR · August 5th, 2002, 01:14 AM

I think XP has the update utility built in... AKA it automatically downloads windows updates then tells you when they are ready to install...

ChoaticWhisper · August 5th, 2002, 01:15 AM

I would open a command prompt do a netstat -a and see where it is connected to.
Maybe download a packetmonitor to see whats it downloading, might not help. It will also show you the IP that it is downloading from(You can set it to do a reverse lookup to find the host name)
http://www.analogx.com/contents/down...twork/pmon.htm

Jutral · August 5th, 2002, 01:18 AM

Heya there

. I'd suggest you go out and download ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs. They have the free version avaiable for download (buried in the site). With ZoneAlarm, you can limit what programs have access to the Internet. You should be able to determine what program is going out and downloading items from the internet. If I had to guess, Windows Update might be automatically downloading files for you. ZoneAlarm would show that, and should show anything else

Also might want to allow Norton to run a full virus scan on the system if you haven't done so already.

Good luck on finding your stray program

Xeroid · August 5th, 2002, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FreakyOCR
I think XP has the update utility built in... AKA it automatically downloads windows updates then tells you when they are ready to install...

I have Auto Updates set to "Turn off automatic updating, I want to update my computer manually".

Mike

FreakyOCR · August 5th, 2002, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Xeroid

I have Auto Updates set to "Turn off automatic updating, I want to update my computer manually".

Mike

eh heh heh heh

well then we have a problem... but then again, how often does microsoft listen to you?

Xeroid · August 5th, 2002, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FreakyOCR

eh heh heh heh

well then we have a problem... but then again, how often does microsoft listen to you?

Like NEVER.

Mike

Xeroid · August 5th, 2002, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mickwish
Do you get an error message of any kind when you disconnect?

No I dont.

Mike

Xeroid · August 5th, 2002, 01:38 AM

Here are my
netstat -a results:

Mike

EDITED, I didn't get the whole image the first try.