If you are worried that some programs on your PC are secretly making connections to websites in the background, here's a quick tip that uses a simple DOS command to detect and prevent such suspicious activity:
1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.
2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)
The file activity.txt will have a log of all process that made a connection to the Internet in the last two minutes. It will also show which process connected to which website in this time. And not just the web browsers (like iexplore.exe or opera.exe), the log will also show your IM clients, download managers, email programs or any software that requires a net connection.
If you are worried that some programs on your PC are secretly making connections to websites in the background, here's a quick tip that uses a simple DOS command to detect and prevent such suspicious activity:
1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.
2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)
The file activity.txt will have a log of all process that made a connection to the Internet in the last two minutes. It will also show which process connected to which website in this time. And not just the web browsers (like iexplore.exe or opera.exe), the log will also show your IM clients, download managers, email programs or any software that requires a net connection.
I remember years ago when I used the original MP3.com, and back in the ZoneAlarm version 2 era that MP3.com would show up in the firewall logs as the browser communicating with the website on the websites port 80 an hour or so later after I'd left the site and was browsing elsewhere. It was always something that made me go hmm, but I never thought of it as a threat after reading some security info about it.