Windows – See what programs are accessing the Internet

Discovered a handy windows command that displays all active internet connections. This can be really handy for spyware/adware/malware/virus checking. It works on Vista and XP. Here's what to do:

  1. Click Start - Run
  2. Type "cmd"
  3. In the command prompt type "netstat -b"

A list of results like the following should appear that look like this:

Netstat Results

The table lists the following:

  • Proto: The protocol being used by the process
  • Local Address: The local address of the process
  • Foreign Address: The remote address of the process
  • State: Which state of connection the process is in
  • PID: The process identifier (Each process is given an ID, this can be siaplyed in Task Manager by customizing the columns of the processes tab, click here to see a tutorial)
  • The name of the process: This is the name of the process which is trying to access the network, it is placed in square brackets, i.e.  "[application_name.exe]"

If the name of the process doesn't look familiar check a site like ProcessLibrary, this will list what each process does.

A more indepth article covering netstat is located here:

http://commandwindows.com/netstat.htm

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