Helge Haensel wrote:
> Hallo NG!
>
> Windows 7/64/Hp.
> I am using NetMeter 1.1.41 (http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/) to
> get an
> idea about netactivities of my pc. This works pretty well. But sometimes
> activities, i.e. downloads, are indicated where source and destination are
> unknown. Possibly these are initiated by windows or adobe updates, ok.
> Is there a small free utility available that immediately tries to solve the
> ip-addresses and shows these together with the pc-process involved?
> I do not want wireshark or other big programs running constantly in the
> background.
> Thanks!
>
> Vy 73! Helge
I had some fun like that the other day.
1) Used TCPView, to associate a PID with some network activity.
The IP address was akamaitechnologies, a company that sells bandwidth
for a price, to other companies. Knowing the IP, doesn't hint at who
is doing the downloads. In other words, seeing "akamai" doesn't tell
me the downloading activity is benign. Some web news sites, serve video
from there.
2) Used Process Explorer to check the PID and associate a process.
The process was anonymous, and I wasn't able to trace it to something
tangible. So for a moment, it was looking like malware. (And usually,
when you want to know, you're in the process of making the decision to
shut down or not.)
It turned out to be Adobe Reader, downloading an update. I've since turned
off the update feature entirely. If they can't leave a "hint" that it
is an Adobe product (like put an icon in the tool bar or something)
doing a lengthy download, they can just screw off.
I'm not convinced, that any single utility is going to be able to
identify the activity in all cases. If a program goes to enough efforts,
it can leave little useful information for things like Process Explorer.
Paul
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