Has My Computer Been Zombified?

Lately, the wireless connection on my home laptop is increasingly slow. I have to reboot it daily, whereas I used to be on for weeks without issues.

Today after reboot I decided to look at the traffic while it sat idling, and noticed it is continuously sending out packets of data, far greater than what it receives. In less than 2 hours sitting idling, it:

i. received 20 megs of data
ii. sent out almost a half gig of data!!

I am unclear if the dialog "Wireless Connection Status" merely indicates merely internal communication with the router, or if it means traffic going out to the Web?

I am attaching a screen cap.

My worst fear is that my computer has been compromised and is being used for some nefarious purpose by a hacker.

Is my concern grounded? What should I do?

Thanks,
Junk2222

 

Well, I don't know what to think? Is what I describe above -- and the pic attached -- unusual?

Maybe all of this traffic is internal to my network and not even going out to the web at all? I thought some knowlegible members here could tell me if I should be suspicious or not?