How to determine what app is generating network traffic?

How to determine what app is generating network traffic? Having issues with some app apparently trying to do huge automatic updates and repeatedly failing (and retrying). Keeps sucking up large quantities of bandwidth, and I'd like to put a stop to it. Problem being, I have no idea which app (of several that have "silent" background updates) it is.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 252

Total answers/comments: 5

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bert [Entry]

"Open Command Prompt (cmd.exe), execute

netstat -b

and look for 'ESTABLISHED' connections. Add -n to disable name resolution."

bert [Entry]

"netstat -ab

That will give you all TCP and UDP ports along with the respective executables involved in the communication.

For a more visual indication indication of your current connections you may want to search for netowrk monitoring tools, or probably have one available already if you are using a personal firewall the likes of Comodo.

Here's two such tools:
A Visual Netstat (Thaddy's Netstat)
Net Tools 5.0 (a suit of monitoring and information tools)"

bert [Entry]

"This is a very useful tool: MS Network Monitor.

there is also: TCPView can help you see active connections.

TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of
all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and
remote addresses and state of TCP connections."
"This is a very useful tool: MS Network Monitor.

there is also: TCPView can help you see active connections.

TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of
all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and
remote addresses and state of TCP connections."

bert [Entry]

I'm a big fan of http://www.wiresharkdotorg/ for packet capture or other network analysis tasks.

bert [Entry]

"If you're using linux, you can use IPTRaf, which is a real-time monitoring application. Checks all connections on all protocols, by port, etc.

If you're using Windows, you might want to check out Ethereal which is a GUI driven monitoring app.

The things I like about IPTraf and Ethereal (as opposed to netstat, which is pretty awesome) is that you can run them for a period of time to see what the hell is going on."