Limit Internet access plans are rarely used today, as the availability of unlimited ones has greatly increased. But if you are still forced to use limit tariff, and the consumption of traffic, along with the consumption of your funds, has suddenly increased, it is important to determine and eliminate the cause of what happened.
1.
A little command-line program called netstat will help you with this. Most likely, you won’t even have to download and install it - it is included not only in most Linux distributions, but even in most Windows versions. The first step is to reproduce as much as possible the situation in which you begin to experience a sudden increase in traffic consumption. That is, run the same programs, make them perform the same actions, and so on.
2.
Now, having detected an increase in traffic consumption, you need to run the netstat program. The program will display a large piece of text, we are only interested in the top lines, which look something like this:
tcp 0 1953 10.203.66.34:33599 mc.yandex.ru:www ESTABLISHED
They can be used to determine which servers your computer is currently communicating with. You can see IP addresses, ports, and domain names. There may be addresses that have nothing to do with the sites you visit. By domain names, it is not difficult to guess which program is exchanging data: perhaps the antivirus is being updated, the OS, some program with automatic updates, running in the background of ICQ.
3.
To more accurately find out the “culprit” of the increase in traffic consumption, close the programs one at a time, each time running netstat again. See what will change in the list of connections - which connections will disappear. Having discovered which program consumes traffic, it makes sense to reconfigure it, for example, so that it stops updating automatically (here it is important to choose a reasonable balance between reducing traffic consumption and regularly installing critical updates, while antivirus databases should be updated regularly all the more). If all programs are closed, but something continues to consume traffic, and the domain names in the netstat results seem suspicious to you, you should check your computer for malware.
In the "PID" section, we look at which program consumes resources.
Also, if you right-click on the process, a set of functions will appear. Process Properties - process properties, End Process - end the process, Copy - copy, Close Connection - close the connection, Whois - what the system advises.
The third way is to use Windows OS components
Click Start, Control Panel.
For Windows XP. Open the Security Center.
Click "Auto Update".
In the new window, put a mark next to "Disable" and "OK".
For Windows 7. Open Windows Update.
Click "Settings".
Check the box "Do not check for updates".
Programs and system elements will not access the network. However, so that the service does not turn back on, we perform the following steps (acceptable for Windows XP Windows 7).
In the "Control Panel" go to the "Administration" section.
We are looking for "Security Center" or "Windows Update". Click "Disable Service".
The fourth way is to control the antivirus program
AT new version Nod 32 has an additional feature - traffic control. Launch ESET NOD32 Smart Security 5 or higher. Go to the "Utilities" section and select "Network Connections".
We close browsers and look at the list of programs and elements that consume Internet resources. Opposite the name of the software, the connection and data transfer speed will also be displayed.
In order to restrict the program's access to the network, right-click on the process and select "Temporarily disable network connection for the process."
Internet connection speed will increase.
Where is the traffic going? How to find a "leak" by the simplest means.
They say that there are two mysteries in nature: where does the dust come from, and where does the money go? In the same way, the Internet has its own mystery: where does the traffic "leak"? Of course, in stationary conditions, with modern high-speed lines, this problem has lost its relevance - but as soon as we go on vacation, to nature, to the village, where the only way to connect with the Internet is cellular communication, this problem rises to its full height. We buy a package of 1-2-4-8 gigabytes from the operator, it seems that we didn’t do anything, but it was used up ((. Where did it go? And is it possible to somehow find the "source of the leak" with "improvised means"?
In general, if you are already going "to nature" and will use the Internet with limited traffic, it is very desirable in advance install a traffic control program. For example, the completely free NetLimiter Monitor. Then, looking at its statistics, we will see, for example, that traffic, incoming and outgoing, is consumed by the FireFox browser (in the first example) ... or only incoming is consumed by the Miranda instant messaging program. Everything is simple and transparent.
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Radio amateurs, when it is not possible to use an accurate, "qualitative" meter, often use a "quantitative" one - which is usually called a tester. In our traffic control system, the tester will be the indicator of the local network / wireless network / modem - in general, interface through which the computer is connected to the interface. Also, such a tester can serve as an indicator of the amount of incoming / outgoing traffic of the Dashboard-a cellular modem (cellular modem control program).
How to determine which indicator to focus on? There may be several network / wireless network / modem indicators in the tray. It's very easy if you exactly If you have no idea which indicator to look at, then you can track the one we need by changing activity. Try in the browser, for example, to load any site and see which indicator has become active - lit up or blinking frequently. If there is a red cross near the indicator, you can immediately ignore it. In the example screenshot, the active interface is marked with a green dot, and the idle one is red.
Having found the indicator of our connection to the Internet, we can now begin the revision. First, let's roughly estimate - there is a "leak" in general. Let's stop accessing the Internet, wait for all sites to load, etc. - and look at our indicator. It must not burn. If it does not ignite for a long time even for a short time- most likely there is no "unproductive leak". But, most likely, you will notice that it "flashes" periodically. So some program accesses the Internet. Let's try to find - which of the programs (or browser tabs) does this.
How to determine which of the heap of programs that are in this moment active on the computer accessing the internet? Let's use the "Wolf method" from "Wait a minute!". Remember when he, chasing the Hare, ran into the TV store? To determine where the Hare was hiding, he began to turn off the TVs - and finally found him. So we will try to find a "hare" or "hares".
To do this, we will use the TaskManager. With the "normal", system TaskManager, we unload programs when they "freeze". Is it possible for them, on the contrary, to introduce programs into a controlled "freeze"? Unfortunately not - the standard system TaskManager cannot. But there are a huge number of alternative TaskManagers that can do this. We will not consider all such programs - we will limit ourselves to only two.
The first and quite powerful is. Despite such a big name, it is completely safe for the system and very powerful in terms of research and management of running programs and processes. Download and install it - it will help you not only in this matter - many issues of the system can be clarified with its help. If you cannot or do not have the opportunity to install the program (for example, if the installation of programs is prohibited or you do not want to add it to the program group) - download the portable version. It will allow you to start exploring the system on the go, without unnecessary setup. In addition, you can burn the portable version -a to a USB flash drive and use it anywhere.
Run it and let's look at the main window, the Processes tab. You will see many programs and processes running on your system. The lower the program is in the window, the later it is launched. The bottommost program in the window was the last one launched.
By the way, this program also indirectly shows which program accesses the Internet (although not only). Look at the I/O Total column. If the program has non-zero digits in this column, then the program is engaged in data exchange with the "outside world" - in relation to the program memory, of course. If for programs related to the Internet (the list will be at the end of the article) this figure is non-zero, feel free to include it in the list of suspects. Now how are we going to use this program to look for programs that are "active"? Very simple. Starting from the bottom (from the most recent ones), let's start "freezing" Internet programs. To do this, right-click on the name of the program and select from the menu Suspend Process. After that, we look at our indicator - have the calls to the Internet stopped? If yes, then we found all programs that "milk" traffic (there are, most likely, more than one of them). If the calls have not stopped - but the "rate" of blinking has changed - then the "frozen" program is almost certainly one of those. If nothing has changed - "unfreeze" the program by right-clicking on the name of the program and selecting the item Resume Process.
After the "list of the accused" is ready, we will evaluate what to do with it. If the list includes only instant messaging and communication programs - for example, Skype (skype.exe), ICQ (icq.exe), Qip (qip.exe), Miranda (miranda32.exe) - then you need to think about whether it is worth keeping them constantly active. The fact is that these programs constantly exchange data over the Internet - and this cannot be avoided. Some consume little traffic (for example - ICQ, Qip, Miranda), others - a little more (for example Skype) - but the exchange will be in any case. So if you want to save money on these programs, shut them down when you're not using them. Or "freeze" for the time of "downtime" TaskManager-ohm. But, by the way, any of these programs consumes very little traffic - so if you already have a not quite limited traffic package - you can leave these programs to work constantly. Another group of programs that can consume traffic even at rest are browsers. Such as Internet Explorer(iexplorer.exe), Mozilla FireFox(firefox.exe), Mozilla SeaMonkey(seamonkey.exe), Opera(opera.exe), Google Chrome(chrome.exe), Safari(safari.exe) - well, possibly others. Some of the pages on the sites you open may be set to periodically download information to update the screen state. Its volume can sometimes be significant. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to "freeze" a browser bookmark. Therefore, in the "first pass" you will have to bypass all bookmarks and close all suspicious ones. For the future, having identified such pages, do not leave them after viewing - but close them. The sites themselves can be very different - for example, this year I saw that the pages of the GisMeteo site are periodically (and quite often) updated - although the weather does not change so quickly)).
There may also be "forgotten" programs that are automatically loaded when the system boots - most often these are programs for working with torrents (trackers) - for example, muTorrent (uTorrent.exe). Just prevent such programs from starting automatically - while you are in conditions of limited traffic.
If the program does not belong to the above and it is not a system one (see the list below) - that is, a reason to be wary. It is very likely that your system is infected with a virus/trojan - and it quietly does its "dirty work" without notifying you. "Freeze" such processes and do not "unfreeze" them - and search the Internet for what kind of program it is. If this is a harmless program, then just disable it for the "limited exchange" period. If, according to information on the Internet, this is a Trojan / virus program, treat your computer.
If the traffic is consumed by a system program, then it is best to turn on the firewall in the system - a system or external program - and prohibit unnecessary calls. Setting up furewall is a matter for a separate article - but the Internet is full of all sorts of descriptions of settings. Use what you understand. The firewall will allow you to more precisely control the traffic and will allow you to block access to the Internet to those programs that you do not want to "release".
But, you say, this one is quite complicated for beginners. Isn't there something functionally the same - but as simple as possible? It turns out there is! This is an extremely simple, but at the same time quite powerful Task Manager, which has the ability to "freeze" / "unfreeze" programs - and at the same time does not require installation. its size is generally negligible - 38.4k the program itself and about 100k - all files. This size will not "ruin" your traffic package much.
After you run it (it's better to put it into autoload altogether - it needs very little memory) it can be called by a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+~. We will see a window with a list of running programs - the higher the program, the later it is launched. The most recent one is at the top of the list.
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Now, using one of these programs, you can find the "source of the leak" and decide what to do with this program / programs.
Application - names of programs and their executable files appearing in the list of TaskManagers:
Browsers:
Internet Explorer - iexplorer.exe
Mozilla Firefox - firefox.exe
Mozilla SeaMonkey - seamonkey.exe
Opera-opera.exe
Google Chrome - chrome.exe
Safari - safari.exe
Maxthon Browser - maxthon.exe
Instant messaging and communication programs:
skype - skype.exe
ICQ - icq.exe
qip - qip.exe
Miranda - miranda32.exe
R&Q - rnq.exe
P2P programs (for working with torrents and direct file exchange):
uTorrent - uTorrent.exe
edonkey - edonkey.exe
Emule - emule.exe
System programs - do not "freeze" them unnecessarily - a complete "freeze" of the system is possible!:
System Idle Process
System
sms.exe
winlogon.exe
services.exe
lsass.exe
svchost.exe
The list is given more as an example, only the most famous programs are listed. If you see a program not from this list, look on the Internet for what kind of executable file it is
The article is discussed on the General Forum in this top.
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The situation with mobile traffic on the iPhone in recent times becomes more and more frightening. In our recent article, many readers confirmed the existence of the problem. Where does the traffic go?
There is no single answer to this question, it all depends on specific device, carrier and installed applications. However, to discover consumption channels mobile Internet You can, and without installing third-party applications.
To do this, go to the " cellular» iPhone or iPad settings. All your applications are located here, as well as data on their consumption of mobile Internet (in fact, many people know about it). But the section "System Services" deserves special attention. In it, you can find out how much data is consumed, for example, Siri, Push notifications, or tethering.
This information can be used to determine whether to turn off notifications for certain apps or location services that track your location. All this works in the background and not only consumes traffic, but also negatively affects the time battery life devices.
It will be most useful if you turn it off, due to which the consumption of mobile Internet grows significantly. Owners of completely unlimited packages are not in danger, but limited ones are still in danger.
Sooner or later, the question arises of where the money goes on the Internet. Often users require information that fully provides step by step instructions on obtaining information - what the traffic was used for when connecting to the Internet via DRO. This technology will be useful in finding out the reason for the increased traffic consumption.
