Network connection light glowing constantly

I am using a single Windows XP machine with McAfee firewall and McAfee
online Anti-Virus scanner installed. However, the Network Connection
tray icon indicates constant inbound and outbound traffic even when I
am not running any application that should be legitimately using the
net. When I check the firewall traffic summary, it says that no data
transfer is taking place. However, the Windows tray indicator shows
that packets are going in and out continuously. What could be the
possible causes?

Thanks in advance.
Sabya

Re: Network connection light glowing constantly

wrote in message
news:1188198925.951585.107140@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com.. .
>I am using a single Windows XP machine with McAfee firewall and McAfee
> online Anti-Virus scanner installed. However, the Network Connection
> tray icon indicates constant inbound and outbound traffic even when I
> am not running any application that should be legitimately using the
> net. When I check the firewall traffic summary, it says that no data
> transfer is taking place. However, the Windows tray indicator shows
> that packets are going in and out continuously. What could be the
> possible causes?
>

You can use something like Ethereal a packet sniffer and something like
Active Ports (both are free) to see if traffic is leaving the machine and
McAfee has been beaten by malware.

You can also use Process Explorer to look at what's running on the machine
as well.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/klw1
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23780-order,1-page ,1/description.html

You can right-click in the PE's upper and lower panes and go to Properties
as well -- go look around on the machine.

Re: Network connection light glowing constantly

wrote in message
news:1188198925.951585.107140@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com.. .
>I am using a single Windows XP machine with McAfee firewall and McAfee
> online Anti-Virus scanner installed. However, the Network Connection
> tray icon indicates constant inbound and outbound traffic even when I
> am not running any application that should be legitimately using the
> net. When I check the firewall traffic summary, it says that no data
> transfer is taking place. However, the Windows tray indicator shows
> that packets are going in and out continuously. What could be the
> possible causes?
>

I know that Tiny Personal Firewall will show data flow even when
nothing is coming in or out of the network. That is data flow
internally on your machine that will show up, plus if you are running
a network, and data being transferred accross your network will
also show in the firewall logs. At least Tiny Personal Fireall
will also log traffic travelling locally on my LAN.