internet explorere keeps sending data

[ikkedus]

Internet explorer keeps sending and receiving packages when the program is running (also with a blank page). I switched to FF already which works fine. I ran (pt of run?) a bootscan with avast and I also ran windows defender. Both didn't find anything.

Anyone knows why explorer does this?

[DavidR]

Internet explorer keeps sending and receiving packages when the program is running (also with a blank page).

Can you explain in more detail why you think this is a problem, IE does send and receive packets, but it also depends on what you are doing at the time. If you have some web pages open they may well be timed to refresh which could cause this activity.

So we need more details, what is detecting these packets ?
What is your firewall ?
What is your OS ?

[ikkedus]

So we need more details, what is detecting these packets ?
What is your firewall ?
What is your OS ?

XP SP2 with all updates defender avast and windows firewall
The window with LAN-status has two numbers that keep increasing fast (Send and Received). I think this is a problem because this is something new (last month). The problem starts directly from the moment I launch IE. Firefox doesn't do this. IE happened not to do this in the past.

[DavidR]

These two figure are going to rack up the longer you are connected, however, there can be legitimate reasons for this to happen, it entirely depends on what you are doing, what various settings are in IE about updates, etc. and without detailed information I can't hazard a guess as to what it might be. Without knowing what the data is there really is no way to tell and the windows firewall (don't get me started) doesn't monitor outbound connections, so it could be absolutely anything.

Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.

So I suggest you get a third party firewall. Zone Alarm free http://www.zonelabs.com works fine with avast and has a reasonably friendly user interface. There are others, Jetico, Sunbelt Kerio, etc.
See some firewall tests for comparison, some are freeware but many are paid for versions http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests.php. Also see http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml

See my image, it represents about 3 hours on line general browsing and I haven't even started IE, firefox only.

[ikkedus]

Yep, that's the window. When I start firefox it stops at say 12 packages sent. When I start IE it keeps rising, maybe at 1000 packages per minute or more (loading nothing). I guess I should I find a way to get ZA installed somehow.

[DavidR]

These are bytes (and not packets) they are very small and 1000 of them is a kilobyte KB tiny for 1KB in 1 minute is barely on the radar.

What is your meaning of packet (or do you mean byte) ?

[polonus]

Hi DavidR,

Think the man should analyze with Process Explorer, just what is going on, together with netstat from a dos prompt.
Is something trying to access from within to the outside, is his firewall alarming, can he analyze his startup list. If he does not see much idle CPU action, actually hearing and seeing the red or orange led on his console flickering in pace, there is not much to worry. He could check up what a scandisk total is giving out in between sessions. Rule of thumb: do you have the 8.192 = right.  I should go inside ZA look at what the programs settings are, some green or red, better reset to all blue question marks. This has been at the root of many an unexplained problem. Same as with a browser seting, you permit googlesyndication with NoScript in stead of the main site, trouble awaits you,

polonus