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Any bandwidth used while system is off?

zCypher

zCypher

Diamond Member
This might be a stupid question, but I have to ask anyway.

My computer is plugged into a cisco router (WRT310N V2) which is plugged into a cable modem. All of today my computer is off. When I get home, I turn on the computer and log into the ISP's website to verify my bandwidth usage and it reads 3GB downloaded today.

The wireless functionality is disabled on my router. My computer is plugged in directly with cat5 cable and is the only computer connected to the router. What am I missing here? How can there be 3GB downloaded?

Using my router software I can verify the bandwidth usage in real time. LAN seems to stay between 20-30kbps while doing nothing. All I have running is MSE and an idle light weight instant messenger (Miranda IM). WAN however shows consistently 700-800kbps...

My IP/MAC address is the only one showing up under active/DHCP clients

I'm kinda stumped. Ideas?
 
VirtualLarry said:
Hmm. Done malware scans recently? You might be part of a botnet or have a trojan or something.
Click to expand...

I always run an up to date program (before it was Avira, now I'm trying MSE), in addition to running a Spybot scan at least once per week. It never finds anything more than a cookie.
 
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Try running Malwarebytes & Combofix on it. You may have a rootkit that is evading your antivirus software.

If you feel like learning, I'd also recommend installing Wireshark and take a look at what traffic your computer is receiving and sending. That might narrow down whether it is a virus/malware or some other application in the background (torrent software, p2p software, etc).
 
hawk82 said:
Try running Malwarebytes & Combofix on it. You may have a rootkit that is evading your antivirus software.

If you feel like learning, I'd also recommend installing Wireshark and take a look at what traffic your computer is receiving and sending. That might narrow down whether it is a virus/malware or some other application in the background (torrent software, p2p software, etc).
Click to expand...

I've installed a program that shows all the connections (CommView I think), and I did see some weird IPV6 connections that I didn't really understand. I disabled IPV6 in my network connection (start, network, adapters, LAN properties, uncheck IPV6) -- strangely it was already disabled in the router config.

What I don't understand is how can there be transfer occurring while the computer is shut off. Can the router be somehow infected with something?

What's even more strange is when I am on the router page that shows real time bandwidth, it stays pinnned between 600 to 800kbps (sometimes spiking at 1mbps) and in CommView I can see a connection with my IP transferring bytes constantly -- the weird part is when I close Firefox, that transfer shown in CommView stops completely. This is with no other tabs or instances of FF open and no downloads.

so I'm still completely lost as to how there could have been 3GB transferred yesterday while my computer was off all day. grrr..
 
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JackMDS said:
Did you try to contact the ISP and get an explanation about it?

You can also use this and follow the usage while the computer is On.

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/


😎
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, I will check both of them later when I'm home. I have done some troubleshooting with the ISP in the recent past because of a severe intermittent loss of throughput issue, but the tech kept insisting that I was downloading while doing speedtest. Now I see why he may have thought that ... 😛

I'll have to give them another call specifically about this weirdness. Otherwise the connection at this time appears to function perfectly. With and without the router I get 7.75 to 7.9mbps on speedtest.net (my connection is rated at 7.5mbps according to the ISP). What I find really strange is despite my router telling me about ~800kbps constant transfer, I still get the same speedtest results.
 
I am not sure what "my router telling me about ~800kbps constant transfer" means. Where do you see it?

If you have a Cable Internet there is always a traffic on the WAN port even if the computers are off.


😎
 
JackMDS said:
I am not sure what "my router telling me about ~800kbps constant transfer" means. Where do you see it?

If you have a Cable Internet there is always a traffic on the WAN port even if the computers are off.


😎
Click to expand...

Yes it is cable internet. It's normal for ~800kbps to be constantly transferred?
Where I see it is in the router config, there's a section that shows the real time transfer of LAN and WAN.
 
The word transfer is misleading if No computer is On and saving aspects of the traffic on the HD there is Nowhere to transfer anything.

Action on the WAN port is a common occurrence on Cable Internet connections.


😎
 
JackMDS said:
The word transfer is misleading if No computer is On and saving aspects of the traffic on the HD there is Nowhere to transfer anything.

Action on the WAN port is a common occurrence on Cable Internet connections.


😎
Click to expand...

Well the computer was off all day and my ISP logged over 3GB of download from my modem during that time. That's what I find unsettling. You're saying it is normal for a cable connection?
 
zCypher said:
Well the computer was off all day and my ISP logged over 3GB of download from my modem during that time. That's what I find unsettling. You're saying it is normal for a cable connection?
Click to expand...

Were you torrenting the day before? Maybe everyone else in the swarm was trying to hit your modem, which would look like downloads to the ISP.
 
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