i use a dongle so data consumption is a big issue and i noticed i am now using about a gig a week when i use to use a gig a month, i dont stream/download music or video?

on the dongle interface i can see it start up downloading a continous stream of data normally as i exit facebook but that could be a coincidence and it just runs away at 0.5meg down loading a 300mb+ if i dont disconnect, when i reconnect it just starts down loading again?

I use a fully up to date Norton 360 so i should find any viruis, any suggestions on how i find out what program is pulling down this data as i have looked at task manager but nothing makes sense! plus being online to search for the cause costs as it just down loads all the time, but isnt uploading so isnt using me to peer2peer.

 

does the dongle have logging

maybe install a firewall on the pc and turn on logging

if it downloading where is the data going on your hard disk?

 

hodgy0_2 the Norton 360 pack has a firewall which is on it shows various attempts at intrusion but says they were blocked and no action required.

how would i track where it is writing it to the hard drive?

and what should i look for on the firewall log?

the dongle is a Huawei E1550?

 

Anti-virus updates ? or the OS doing updates.

dunx

 

Disable Norton, throw it in the bin and install a software based firewall like ZoneAlarm

 

last year a 12 gig top up lasted me 10 months this year 12 gigs lasted me 4 months, and since 17th June i have done 2.75 gig of data yet not down loaded any music or video?

I know some people dont think Norton is the best but it should pick up any serious Trojan or virus shouldn't it? basicly all the antivirus seem to be much the same which ever you have someone slags it off.

 

Download Anti-malwarebytes and install and run (its completely free!!)

I found with a lot of AV'S and FW's they don't detect malware

Worth a try,

Also do you run any filesharing software?

 

no i dont do any file sharing, when its down loading there is very little traffic up loading?

 

I've got Little Snitch on my mac and it has a network traffic monitor option and I can see incoming and outgoing traffic. For incoming it'll show the name of the process/app, the IP / DNS address(es) it's using.

Sounds like you'd want something to monitor the network so you can see what is being downloading. Perhaps MS's Network Monitor might be of use.
Not sure if it's any good, or what else out there might be of help. Trying to recall if ZoneAlarm has this monitoring in it, have a feeling it might, so could also be worth a look.