Has My Internet Connection Been Hijacked ?

[vagabond48]

I use a piece of software called bandwidth meter to monitor the bandwidth speeds. This evening I noticed higher than usual download bandwidth traffic but with very little or no upload and I became suspicious. I checked to see what might be causing this traffic since it looked like my browser firefox wasn't doing anything. I checked the task manager and made sure the windows update program wasn't running.

I am currently running AVG8.5, and zone alarm. I closed my firefox and thunderbird and the traffic continued. When I engaged the internet lock on ZA, the activity stopped. I did a computer scan with avg, malwarebytes and spybot all with the latest updates and did not find any problems. Coincidentally, I later noticed that my computer no longer recognized my CD/DVD drive and several task tray icons AC power and volume disappeared.

This type of run away traffic has happened to me once before about 1 month ago but only for a very short time and didn't do the same research as I just did.

Can anyone give me a clue on how to determine if anyone is getting into my laptop and is using it to either steal bandwidth or worse stealing my data and most important how can I stop it.

I locked up ZA while I was writing this message and just opened ZA again and right now, there is no internet traffic.

[thaimite]

I use a piece of software called bandwidth meter to monitor the bandwidth speeds. This evening I noticed higher than usual download bandwidth traffic but with very little or no upload and I became suspicious. I checked to see what might be causing this traffic since it looked like my browser firefox wasn't doing anything. I checked the task manager and made sure the windows update program wasn't running.

I am currently running AVG8.5, and zone alarm. I closed my firefox and thunderbird and the traffic continued. When I engaged the internet lock on ZA, the activity stopped. I did a computer scan with avg, malwarebytes and spybot all with the latest updates and did not find any problems. Coincidentally, I later noticed that my computer no longer recognized my CD/DVD drive and several task tray icons AC power and volume disappeared.

This type of run away traffic has happened to me once before about 1 month ago but only for a very short time and didn't do the same research as I just did.

Can anyone give me a clue on how to determine if anyone is getting into my laptop and is using it to either steal bandwidth or worse stealing my data and most important how can I stop it.

I locked up ZA while I was writing this message and just opened ZA again and right now, there is no internet traffic.

Many programs such as Google earth etc automatically check and download updates without asking.

I do not use ZA but you should be able to see the IP addresses that were being connected to and then track these down to see who they belong to

[halleman]

vagabond, it's AVG. I see you have the latest version and that generates a lot of traffic.

Did have the same problem: removed AVG and use Avast instead now.

Also, i wasn't happy about my zonealarm nomore: same problem. I use PCTools firewal now.

That putted an end to the excessive trafic, the same as you experience now.

Altough, doesn't mean AVG and Zonealarm are bad. Just, the traffic they generated made my PC freeze.

Now, while using Avast and PCTools-firewall, don't have that problem nomore.

Sometimes my PC get's slow, i scan with Avast, and then it seems i have a trojan (from warez sites...??)

Avast finds them, removes them, and my speed is back to normal.

My opinion: the new versions of AVG... no good !

Zonealarm, the newest versions: no good !

[Martian]

I dropped AVG in favor of Avast a few months back and can't be happier. The older AVG programs were smaller and less resource consuming. The newer versions played havoc with my computers.....enter Avast, and no looking back.

As for firewalls, I think the XP firewall along with a couple of spyware blockers such as spybot, malwarebytes and spyware blaster with real time protection provides more than adequate protection for 90% of users.

Regards

[vagabond48]

[Many programs such as Google earth etc automatically check and download updates without asking.

I do not use ZA but you should be able to see the IP addresses that were being connected to and then track these down to see who they belong to

As I wrote, I even closed my browser so I would think google earth would not be active.

In the free ZA, I only see the IP addresses that were blocked.

Is there there a way to see an active IP address on my laptop?

[vagabond48]

Thanks for your answers.

Yes I use AVG8.5 but I wasn't complaining about excessive CPU activity. When I check my task manager, AVG or ZA is showing no CPU activity.

Since I started this thread the problem has not returned so far.

Your answers also don't explain the mystery of my laptop no longer recognizing my CD/DVD drive which with the help of Dell tech I was able to fix.

As far as AVG8.5, I schedule an update every 4 hours and it is usually very quick. At this point, I have no reason to believe AVG is the culprit for this particular problem.

I guess the problem remains a mystery.

I have thought about using another AV but since I came from AVG7.5 and had no complaints, I have been too lazy to try another AV. I know AVG8.5 has functions that I don't need and it takes more resources than I like, maybe soon.