Dial-up issues

[Hyperlite]

Just finished my new build, but i'm having some strange problems with my dialup connection.

the connection itself is working just fine, but there is constant traffic, even when the system is idle, and i can't force it down by running other stuff. trust me, i know what this normally means, but i have now installed:

ZoneAlarm
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
Windows Firewall


and its still happening! none of them can find the problem. i've even gone down through the processes menu and just started shutting stuff down...nothing worked. theres nothing on the startup menu, or anywhere else i can think of. i can't play any of my MMO's with this crap, i just laaaaaaag and the link drops. download transfer rates are horrendus, as low as they already are =P, and web pages creep, blah blah blah. i'm just baffled that none of that software can find whatever this is, particulaly zone alarm. it seems to want to stop everything BUT whatever the heck that is.

Can anyone PLEASE help me out? btw, there are absolutly no other system effects that i have noticed.

 

[Allio]

Is the traffic up or down?

I'm not familiar with ZoneAlarm, but I'd try installing something like NetLimiter that will tell you exactly where all the traffic is coming from. I think the Spyware removal stuff is irrelevant. How well did you patch your system?

 

[Hyperlite]

actually there is very little traffic at all....yeah, its really wierd. Zone alarm registers about .2KB/s constantly up and down, and windows task manager network usage is completely erratic, anywhere from 5-100% usage, with nothing running.

 

[Davegod]

run hijackthis

disable windows update check, zonealarm updatecheck...

 

[Modeps]

I never understood the need for firewall software when connected to a dial up isp, let alone TWO firewalls running.

PS: why are you running adaware and spybot all the time? they just take up memory. Schedule a weekly scan if you're that worried about spyware.

 

[warcrow]

Grab a port sniffer and find out what ports are chattering....

 

[Allio]

Originally posted by: Hyperlite
actually there is very little traffic at all....yeah, its really wierd. Zone alarm registers about .2KB/s constantly up and down, and windows task manager network usage is completely erratic, anywhere from 5-100% usage, with nothing running.

As has been mentioned, you need to figure out where the traffic is actually coming from. We already know that it exists

 

[BFG10K]

ZoneAlarm
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
Windows Firewall

Disable everything and run just a clean dial-up connection. Is there still unidentified traffic?

If there is I'd start checking for viruses/trojans/worms on your system.

 

[OZEE]

Post your hijackthis log for someone to check ...

 

[Hyperlite]

yeah i tried disabling everything, but to no avail. zonealarm claims that there is a win32 file, svhost.exe, that it cannot black from accessing the internet, and is always running. i really don't know what this file is used for, but when i shut its process down, the connection dies. i'm not at the rig in question, and will not be until wednesday, but i'll post my hijackthis log as soon as i can run it.

 

[Allio]

That, my friend, is a trojan.

Fortunately it's not too tough to remove.

 

[hp660c]

Are you sure the process isn't 'svchost.exe'?

svchost.exe is a normal running process. <b>svhost.exe</b> is not a normal running process.

-- HP

 

[BFG10K]

yeah i tried disabling everything, but to no avail.

No avail? Kill it with Task Manager or better yet, uninstall it.

Get rid of all of that crap and try a vanilla modem connection. If you still have network traffic you've definitely been infected with something.