constant network traffic

I have been trying to troubleshoot network performance on the work lan. I have noticed that some of the xp machines have a constant flow of packets. My questions are A) Is this normal and if so how much is normal? B) How can i plug them up?
Thanks

 

you will always have some flow (chatter), the problem arises when it's massive amounts. Then you know your network is getting sprayed by something on that pc. Most likely some malware. If you look at the network icon in the systray (if you have it enabled fto show up for connections) and the system is idle but the transmit/receive windows are lit solid, then you have a problem. Make sure you have all Windows patches and have scanned for nasties.

 

What would be considered a lot of chatter? Thanks for the malware tip i was suspecting such. Any other culprits?

 

try this
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1089

this will monitor your network.You can see where people are going and how much data is being sent. It will enable you to get a bigger picture of all your pc's instead of one at a time.

Read my review here:http://www.majorgeeks.com/review.php?id=2

 

Thanks for the link. I will try that software. I had run a simpler 'viewer' which gave me a list of ip address, packets , sent to and from. This will help me track down machines by mac address. Still curious as to what would be alot of 'chatter'. I have run malware detection and protecton and only seems to have made a dent in the volume of traffic. I guess i have a lot of footwork to do.

 

it should be pretty obvious really. A few kilobytes here and there isn't a big deal, but you want to check the outgoing amount (data sent). If the sent data being sent is large, i'm talking MB's in size for a short period of time then you have issues. You should definately see a pattern. You should also block any ports to IM programs and Online Radio stations to limit bandwidth usage.