What is going on with my usage?

[silent_rain]

Hi everyone I hope someone can offer me some advice.

I have had some serious problems with my usage for a couple of months now, with my adsl and 3g. Since about May my usage is very high even though I haven't been using it as much as it claims.
Today I received a usage report of 1.4 gbs that I used for the day but I only used the net for 30 mins today and it is totally impossible.
Windows update is turned off, there are no programs I know of that are running in the background or updating themselves, checked for viruses...I don't know what to do anymore.

Anyone have an idea? I'm running windows 7 home premium.
thx
your help would be appreciated

 

[ld13]

1: Connect to the internet
2: Do nothing
3: Check if your 'activity' light on the PC/Router goes crazy...If it does...
4: virus/P2P/blah/skype

Download http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx to check what is using the internet. Kill/exit all your programs and then run it. It will show you what is busy nomnomnom-ing your internet. Assuming of course it is not being done by a 3rd party (wifi/stolen ADSL account) etc etc.

 

[iCubed.Saajid]

Hi. You'll need to download and install a bandwidth monitor, so that you can see exactly what is happening, and if there are any downloads/uploads taking place in the background that you are unaware of.

A good but simple meter is DU Meter. You get more advanced meters that will tell you which process/application is doing the downloading, and how much of it. Just search the MyBB forums for download meter. This topic has been discussed in depth on many threads, and will help you to sort your problem out.

Even once you find the culprit, I still recommend always running a download meter, so that you can constantly monitor your internet connection, both for your own internet connection troubleshooting and monitoring purposes, as well as for comparing your data usage to what your ISP reports, and to make sure that there are no other programs or viruses doing unauthorised downloads/updates.

 

[Pada]

TcpView (like ld13 suggested) or NetLimiter 2 Monitor would do the trick. You need an application like those 2 to show you which APPLICATION is using bandwidth, where as DU Meter only shows global network activity.

If your router supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), you can run PRTG Traffic Grapher to monitor the total throughput of your router, where TcpView and NetLimiter only shows your PC's usage.

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

1: Connect to the internet
2: Do nothing
3: Check if your 'activity' light on the PC/Router goes crazy...If it does...
4: virus/P2P/blah/skype

Download http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx to check what is using the internet. Kill/exit all your programs and then run it. It will show you what is busy nomnomnom-ing your internet. Assuming of course it is not being done by a 3rd party (wifi/stolen ADSL account) etc etc.

LOL