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Question

Hi, Today i am sitting at the computer and the small icon of two computers is constantly showing activity.I have nothing running no apps or programs.When opening the task manager I see on the network tab msn is running at between 10 ann 100%.I usually see no network adapters in this tab.I am a stand alone computer with no other machines in the house. I thought maybe windows update was running but it is not. It is set to run automatically so I went to win updates and click express install to look for updates and it said there were none I am up to date. All email had been down l oaded, and I was just looking at my desktop, yet the connection is obviously active for half an hour at least.I looked at the status of my internet connection and it said there were 500,000kbs sent and three times the amount recieved.What is my computer sending out to msn?? Is my puter being compromised by some one or msn? what kind of info are they getting from my computer? Is this natural or am I being paronoid? Is there anyway for me to see the info being sent out of my computer, or in for that matter?                       Thank you

volcano11 · Answer

Are you running a firewall other than the Windows built in firewall? If there were a trojan running on your computer and sending out information, the Windows firewall would not detect or report it. A program like the free version of Zone Alarm would detect such activity, as will the paid versions of Norton Internet Security or McAfee Security Center.

Steve

volcano11 · Answer

Norton av is not a firewall it is antivirus.  Unless you have Norton Internet Security, you are not running a 2 way firewall. There are all kinds of trojans that antivirus software and spyware removal/detection software do not detect.   A good 2 way firewall would not notify you when an unauthorized program is attempting to access the internet.   Note that some programs, like Windows Critical Updates should do access the internet from time to time and, if they are downloading new updates, would show all kinds of internet activity.  Similarly if Norton Antivirus is set to check for and download new virus defintions, it would also produce lots of internet activity.   Steve

HiGhLaNdEr48 · Answer

Hi volcano,I am only running the windows firewall.I also have norton av  2005 which also is supposed to protect from trojans and other junk  like that. When installing norton it prompted me to let it replace the windows firewall, I clicked to allow it to do so. I was supposed to turn off windows fire wall,but when I did (several times) windows would reset it anyway.So now I guess they both are on. I just ran the m$ malware remover it showed no problems,I also run norton,adaware,spybot every week and never find any problems,also have spyware blaster running.I looked in nortons tab for connections and it is showing that win update is accessing the computer ,I dont get it, as stated in first post all updates are current. Any thoughts????  Thanks again

100mph · Answer

If you don’t have Norton Firewall, which is a part of Norton Internet Security, but not a part of Norton Antivirus, as VOLCANO11 already indicated, get a free (!!!!!!) Zone Alarm. It will help you to IDENTIFY the active process. You can always uninstall it later.

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