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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Setanta" data-source="post: 1919668" data-attributes="member: 2183">This might be unwanted software, but not spyware. The next time this behaviour is happening, open your network control panel, and double click on your local area connection. In the window that opens up, look at the packets sent number. If it's incrementing rapidly (like, if your computer is idle, and it's sending more than a few packets a second), something is very wrong. At that point, some virus programs might be able to help, or maybe not. If you're network savvy, you could download a sniffer like Ethereal (google) and figure out exactly what's up, then google a fix. If neither of those steps help, then you might have to: 1) Buy a hardware firewall (all windows broadband users should have one). I like Netgear, but there are plenty of other brands.2) Put it between your PC and DSL/Cable modem. 3) Format your harddrive and reinstall everything. 4) Be careful about e-mail attachments and downloads from untrustworthy sites. 5) Use a relatively secure browser and e-mail program if you're not already. Hopefully you don't have to take step 3, but there are trojans and what not that can be hard to get rid of.</blockquote>