If you are a dial up user then you use a
modem either internal or external kind to get online. If you have
an external modem then this tip is easy. If you look at the
modem you’ll see lights on the front of it.
When you’re doing anything on the net you’ll notice lights
blinking that indicate that you are Sending Data, and Receiving
Data. Depending on how often the lights blink and how fast they
blink gives a rough idea of how much activity is going on between
your computer and the net.
Here’s where a little perception comes into play. If you are
connected to the internet, and are just sitting by your system
doing absolutely nothing, those lights have no business to be
blinking rapidly. They will flash periodically indicating it’s
checking it’s connectivity, however there should be no heavy data
transfer of any kind if you are not doing anything on the net.
For Example: If you have your email program open and you are
just sitting there reading your mail, you may notice that every 15
sometimes 20 mins that the lights will blink back and forth
indicating it’s sending and receiving data. This is normal because
chances are you have your email program configured to check
your mail every 20 mins.
If by chance you notice the lights on your modem is blinking
consistently for let’s say a period of 2mins non stop be extremely
suspicious.
If you have an internal modem, you will not be able to see the
lights on your modem, instead you can rely on the two tv looking
icons at the bottom right corner of your screen near the clock.
Any data being sent and received will be noticed by the blinking
of the lights rapidly.
Now ,How do you know what’s going on?
Let’s do a short exercise.
• Click Start
• Go to Run (Click Run)
• Type Command
• Click OK
Once you have this screen type the following:
• Netstat –a
This command will give you a listing of everything your
computer is communicating with online currently.
The list you get will look something like this:
Active Connections
Protocol | Local Address | Foreign Address | State
TCP | COMP: 0000 | 10.0.0.1 : 0000 | ESTABLISHED
TCP | COMP:2020 | 10.0.0.5 : 1010 | ESTABLISHED
TCP | COMP:9090 | 10.0.0.3 : 1918 | ESTABLISHED
You’ll see a variety of listings like the above. It will give you the
Protocal being used, the local address (your computer) and what
port on your computer the “Foreign Address” is being connected
to and the (State) of which the (Foreign Address) is. For
example if it is (Established) then that means whatever the
foreign address says is currently connected to your machine.
There is software available that will show you this information
without typing all those commands.
The name of the software is called Xnetstat, you can obtain a
copy of it from here:
http://www.arez.com/fs/xns/
If for whatever reason you believe you are sending and receiving
a lot of data then it is wise to do a netstat –a to see what is
connected to your computer and at what ports.
so it necessary for you to pay attention to such types of things.