How to read Connection Status

I am connected to a home network, at 11.0 Mpbs. Under the activity area of
the Wireless Network Connection Status, I see an outflow of packets even if I
am not actively using mail or the internet. I have been connected for an
hour and a half and "sent" packets is 42,000, about the same as recieved.
What could this mean? Is it normal to have packets sent during the entire
connection time? Is there anyway to determine what is being sent? And, is
there anyway I can change the reading from packets to megs?

Thank you,

Yes there are ways to see actually what is being sent. There is a program
called ethereal, that can be used. A google search for ethereal should bring
it up.
Having lots of packets being sent constantly can be a sign of spyware or
other problems.
But packets are also sent and received because of background windows
services, and other general network maintenance that the systems do
automatically.
And there is no way to see it in megabytes because it's not practical, and
in my opinion not exactly easy to determin.
When there are packets that do not have any large amounts of data, some can
be large and some small... packet count is a easy way to detect network
activity when small amounts of data may be transfered. Especially when
spyware or other programs may be using the internet and you not knowing it.
For example you may start a program that doesnt require, or use any internet
connection, but once it finds a connection it starts sending data to the
main company... or if it has a backdoor to allow access into your computer,
you can watch the packet flow in the status, and if packet flow rate
increases you can become suspicious and run ethereal and see what data if
any is being transfered, or if it's just checking for updates. ;-)
-James G.

"Jon Cameron" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A10A1772-9B94-4D9F-A290-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am connected to a home network, at 11.0 Mpbs. Under the activity area of
> the Wireless Network Connection Status, I see an outflow of packets even
> if I
> am not actively using mail or the internet. I have been connected for an
> hour and a half and "sent" packets is 42,000, about the same as recieved.
> What could this mean? Is it normal to have packets sent during the entire
> connection time? Is there anyway to determine what is being sent? And,
> is
> there anyway I can change the reading from packets to megs?
>
> Thank you,

Thank you, Great information.

"James Gockel" wrote:

> Yes there are ways to see actually what is being sent. There is a program
> called ethereal, that can be used. A google search for ethereal should bring
> it up.
> Having lots of packets being sent constantly can be a sign of spyware or
> other problems.
> But packets are also sent and received because of background windows
> services, and other general network maintenance that the systems do
> automatically.
> And there is no way to see it in megabytes because it's not practical, and
> in my opinion not exactly easy to determin.
> When there are packets that do not have any large amounts of data, some can
> be large and some small... packet count is a easy way to detect network
> activity when small amounts of data may be transfered. Especially when
> spyware or other programs may be using the internet and you not knowing it.
> For example you may start a program that doesnt require, or use any internet
> connection, but once it finds a connection it starts sending data to the
> main company... or if it has a backdoor to allow access into your computer,
> you can watch the packet flow in the status, and if packet flow rate
> increases you can become suspicious and run ethereal and see what data if
> any is being transfered, or if it's just checking for updates. ;-)
> -James G.
>
> "Jon Cameron" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:A10A1772-9B94-4D9F-A290-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I am connected to a home network, at 11.0 Mpbs. Under the activity area of
> > the Wireless Network Connection Status, I see an outflow of packets even
> > if I
> > am not actively using mail or the internet. I have been connected for an
> > hour and a half and "sent" packets is 42,000, about the same as recieved.
> > What could this mean? Is it normal to have packets sent during the entire
> > connection time? Is there anyway to determine what is being sent? And,
> > is
> > there anyway I can change the reading from packets to megs?
> >
> > Thank you,
>
>
>

Hi
Wireless does generate idle packets due to beacon activity.
An additional simple solution would be to download the following small free
utility, and run it on each computer it would show you what is active in the
network and to what address (internal, or external) it is directed to.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.zip

Jack (MVP-Networking).


"Jon Cameron" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A10A1772-9B94-4D9F-A290-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am connected to a home network, at 11.0 Mpbs. Under the activity area of
> the Wireless Network Connection Status, I see an outflow of packets even
> if I
> am not actively using mail or the internet. I have been connected for an
> hour and a half and "sent" packets is 42,000, about the same as recieved.
> What could this mean? Is it normal to have packets sent during the entire
> connection time? Is there anyway to determine what is being sent? And,
> is
> there anyway I can change the reading from packets to megs?
>
> Thank you,