"Ghost" transfers? (maybe netbios)?

[Wojtek]

Hey all

I just got my cable connection this morning and one of the 1st things I've done is that I installed DUmeter and a firewall.

Ok,

Since I plugged my lil cable, DUmeter is showing a non-stop download from 0.1 to 1.1 kb/sec and upload of 0.0 to 0.3 kb/sec

I have everything closed, browser, msn, blabla, but it still continues.

In my firewall, under all connections (im using the free agnitum outpost firewall), I have Windows Explorer, Connection manager and NetBios connection.

Now on the bottom of my firewall, I have the number of packets rejected. And it increases every second.


Anyone has any ideas?
I'm loosing precious bandwidth now


Tnx

 

[CareBear]

try this from a command prompt (should work on NT/2k/XP, not sure about 9x):

netstat

This will show all currently open connections. Best way to try this is not use anything that will access the net for a few minutes (like your browser etc) and then run it.
Does your firewall have a traffic log? It should contain a list of all outgoining and incoming connections from and to your computer.

 

[CareBear]

from what I can tell from you're firewall's manual you could see the same result as netstat along with which application each connection belongs to under:
in the main window of the firewal there's a "My Internet" to the left, under it should be "All Connections". Apparently if you click on that you should see all open connections.

 

[Wojtek]

Originally posted by CareBear
in the main window of the firewal there's a "My Internet" to the left, under it should be "All Connections". Apparently if you click on that you should see all open connections.

I have 3 things there, the 3 I mentionned above

-NetBios Connection
-Connection Manager
-Windows Explorer


But all 3 stay at send/receive 0
It dosnt show that any data is either sent or received by any, yet the refused packets on the bottom still grow and DU still shows 0.5down and 0.1up

 

[Daniel]

I think it's just your ethernet card communicating with the modem. No actual outside transfer really going on.

 

[CareBear]

Originally posted by Wojtek
I have 3 things there, the 3 I mentionned above

-NetBios Connection
-Connection Manager
-Windows Explorer


But all 3 stay at send/receive 0
It dosnt show that any data is either sent or received by any, yet the refused packets on the bottom still grow and DU still shows 0.5down and 0.1up

you don't happen to have an internal LAN do you? DUmeter counts all traffic from all ethernet cards which is why I threw it out right after I installed it
If your OS is Win2k/XP go to Control Panel/Network and dialup connection and then double click on the icon that represents your internet connection. click properties and check "show icon in taskbar when connected". You'll get an extra icon at the lower right that if you double click will show you incoming/outgoing traffic for that network adapter. If the counters there aren't moving then nothing is being transmitted. Also check your cable modem. Most have lights that blink when something is being transferred. If you have constant transfer they should either stay lit or at the least be blinking rapidly.

Second question, "connection manager" wouldn't happen to be terminal services (probably called remote desktop or something similar under XP)? If it is then it's normal to generate traffic all the time. If you minimize the window it'll stop

 

[Wojtek]

Im using Win98, no home LAN.

Why would the card communicate??
I'd understand once in a while?

But not constantly 0.5-1 kb/sec :confused2


Oh, and btw, my 'Data' light on my modem isnt blinking.
Wich leaves me to wonder if DUmeter+Firewall arent creating 'fake' transfers???

 

[CareBear]

Originally posted by Wojtek
Oh, and btw, my 'Data' light on my modem isnt blinking.

That should be the ultimate test... if when you're surfing the lights blink and when you're not surfing and DUmeter is showing transfer they don't blink then it's getting confused somehow. Maybe they don't get along like you said. I'm out of ideas now

But if your modem lights aren't blinking then at least you don't have to worry about using up your ISP's download quota (assuming you have one)

Edited to add: if you're not using a home LAN wouldn't it be better to turn netbios off? If you're not using it might as well lessen the risk even if you do have a firewall.

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Wojtek

But not constantly 0.5-1 kb/sec :confused2

It's only 1kb/sec, it won't hamper bandwidth in any way, sort, or form.

It's unlikely you'll get to utilize full bandwidth anyways.

 

[Wojtek]

I downloaded several other usage loggers and they all do the same thing, Show fake transfers.

from 0.5kb (dumeter) to 5.7kb(modem wizard's built in thingy)

What could be the cause for such thing?

My network card is a Xircom RealPort 10/100 56k card.


And I cant disable netBios, the checkbox is checked and greyed

 

[Wojtek]

I just installed Norton personnal firewall 2003 and it WORKS!

connection during idling is at 0kb/sec, perfect

Now does norton have some sort of internet traffic watch app outside of it's firewall?