Is someone using my internet?

Xeno

I using Rogers (in Canada) cable modem. Past 2 days, the light on my modem where it says PC/Activity have been flashing, which usually means the internet is being used. Its been flashing non-stop. This isn't wireless internet, just the normal cable internet, hooked up to a router, then to my computer and to my brothers. My bros comp isnt on, and I'm not downloading anything at all.

If I unplug my ethernet cable from my comp, the damn modem still flashes.

So I went into control panel, and then network and sharing center, and then view my connection. It shows my internet stats and it shows

Activity


Bytes Sent: 3,877,522

Bytes Recieved: 6,570,444


The problem is that these numbers are jumping up constantly. Like for bytes received, in 3 seconds, the numbers would be 6,580,444 for example. So it jumps up 10,000 bytes in 3 seconds. Its constantly going up like this. Same goes for Bytes sent.
Normally I would give a shit, but I have a 60gb cap a month, and I'm not gonna waste it. What do you guys think?

Thanks!

Esh

I'm pretty sure that PC Activity always flashes.

matthias00

If it's wireless, it's possible but not likely if it's passworded.

If it's wired, then no.

That "activity" light flashes for me even when our internet is completely down.

Xeno

matthias00 wrote: »

If it's wireless, it's possible but not likely if it's passworded.

If it's wired, then no.

That "activity" light flashes for me even when our internet is completely down.

Not for me. It never used to. Just started a few days ago.

It is wired.

But what about what I posted. Bytes received/sent?

Esh

Xeno wrote: »

matthias00 wrote: »

If it's wireless, it's possible but not likely if it's passworded.

If it's wired, then no.

That "activity" light flashes for me even when our internet is completely down.

Not for me. It never used to. Just started a few days ago.

It is wired.

But what about what I posted. Bytes received/sent?

3 megs and 6 megs? Incidental pings or something? Honestly, I've never had a cable modem that didn't have constant activity with that light.

Viscountalpha

I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you are seeing full gigabytes move through your connection then its not a big deal. The worry would be a WIFI router that is WEP/open. Wep is very crackable currently and not really secure at all.

Jobastion

Xeno wrote: »

So I went into control panel, and then network and sharing center, and then view my connection. It shows my internet stats and it shows

Activity


Bytes Sent: 3,877,522

Bytes Recieved: 6,570,444


The problem is that these numbers are jumping up constantly. Like for bytes received, in 3 seconds, the numbers would be 6,580,444 for example. So it jumps up 10,000 bytes in 3 seconds. Its constantly going up like this. Same goes for Bytes sent.
Normally I would give a shit, but I have a 60gb cap a month, and I'm not gonna waste it. What do you guys think?

Thanks!

Keep in mind that number is YOUR computer's in and outbound from the network card on your computer. It's not showing what's occuring on the modem. That number will gradually climb at all times that you have an active network connection, as it sends packets to the router informing the router that it is still turned on and active. Even assuming someone was using your internet, that's not where you'd see it happening.

Unless they're using you as a proxy. But then you have more important things to worry about

vonPoonBurGer

There's only one way to know for sure what that traffic is, and that's to download a packet sniffer. I use WireShark personally, it's free and open source. Disable any net-enabled apps you know of, turn on the sniffer and see what traffic shows up. What kind of traffic is it? What addresses are you receiving from or sending to a lot?

Xeno

vonPoonBurGer wrote: »

There's only one way to know for sure what that traffic is, and that's to download a packet sniffer. I use WireShark personally, it's free and open source. Disable any net-enabled apps you know of, turn on the sniffer and see what traffic shows up. What kind of traffic is it? What addresses are you receiving from or sending to a lot?

Thanks, I did this correctly I think.

The services show up and show

Microsoft
MS tunnel interface driver
realtek
tap vpn adapter

The only one showing packets is Realtek. The IP is garbled, but under packets it shows 12000 and growing and under packet/s the number hovers around 40.

So my question is; what the fuck is realtek?

Tomanta

chances are realtek is your network card.

Jobastion

Xeno wrote: »

vonPoonBurGer wrote: »

There's only one way to know for sure what that traffic is, and that's to download a packet sniffer. I use WireShark personally, it's free and open source. Disable any net-enabled apps you know of, turn on the sniffer and see what traffic shows up. What kind of traffic is it? What addresses are you receiving from or sending to a lot?

Thanks, I did this correctly I think.

The services show up and show

Microsoft
MS tunnel interface driver
realtek
tap vpn adapter

The only one showing packets is Realtek. The IP is garbled, but under packets it shows 12000 and growing and under packet/s the number hovers around 40.

So my question is; what the fuck is realtek?

That's your network card.

destlecare4

hi
realtek is your network card.

Ruckus

Even when you're not doing anything on your PC, network traffic still occurs normally. It's usually housekeeping sorts of things, DHCP renewals, ARP table updates, route checks, link status checks, and whatnot. Basically the PC and modem are always fiddling with the network link. Hell, even if you turn your PC off, and watch the green/yellow activity light on your NIC, you'd see blinks and flickers because the modem is sensing the link as well, waiting for it's peer to come back.

Figgy

It's more of a possibility that you have some adware or a trojan that is sending/receiving crap on your own PC. If your router is strictly wired, the only way someone could be "stealing" your Internet is if they snuck into your house and ran an ethernet cable from your router to their PC.. so I'm assuming you'd know if that was the case.

Edit: And in case you're still paranoid somehow, if someone were to splice into your cable from your box outside, your Internet would actually go down completely, rather then them being able to access your Internet that way. We had this problem a few years back when I was renting the top level of a backsplit house. The guy downstairs was splicing into our cable TV to watch football every week and our Internet would go down because of it.

bowen

There's also usually a lot of multicast/broadcast information being passed around on the internet.

Dracil

Normal internet activity is normal.

TheDragon

Figgy wrote: »

It's more of a possibility that you have some adware or a trojan that is sending/receiving crap on your own PC.

Scan your computer for viruses/malware/spyware etc. If you're seeing unusual network activity, especially for a long period or a large amount of data, check your comp. It could be part of a botnet!

Spherick

If you're really worried, log in to your router and check the DCHP client list.

It will show every IP and computer/device name that is assigned an IP

underdonk

Talk to this guy: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=94391

hesthefastest

You should probably also check your windshield for pits...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Windshield_Pitting_Epidemic

FyreWulff

That's normal communication between the router and the modem. Not only are you being hit by zombies scanning for exploits (they just manually cycle through every available IP), but they do need to talk to each other a lot.