# How can i tell which processes are using my bandwidth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415 "2008-03-23T06:19:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/1 "2008-03-23T06:19:36Z")
I just installed a freeware bandwidth meter and I see that about 70kb/min are being sent even when I have no programs open on my desktop. I have no p2p programs running. Can someone recommend a freeware program that can tell me which processes are doing the sending? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/2 "2008-03-23T09:21:49Z")
If you’re using a firewall you should be able to see which programs are accessing the net and how much data they’re sending and receiving. I use the Comodo free firewall ; on the Activity tab it will list programs active, bytes in, bytes out, etc. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/3 "2008-03-23T10:02:30Z")
This isn’t really for the layman, but it may be interesting even if you don’t understand everything it’s telling you: [TCPView](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx) is free from microsoft and will correlate open socket connections with processes in a continuously-updating display. (ok, not truly continuously, but every second or so, task manager style). ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/4 "2008-03-23T14:37:12Z")
Note that TCPView only works for connections over a TCP socket. Anything using UDP, ICMP, or some other protocol will not show up. Most programs do use TCP though so it’s worth a shot. There’s probably something similar to the unix program Ethereal which works with all IP protocols. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/5 "2008-03-23T16:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] There’s probably something similar to the unix program Ethereal which works with all IP protocols. [/QUOTE] [Wireshark](http://www.wireshark.org/). Can be complicated for newbies, but useful. It helped me track down and eliminate a problem I had with my home theatre software constantly wasting bandwidth by downloading unwanted movie trailers. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/6 "2008-03-23T17:31:21Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] There’s probably something similar to the unix program Ethereal which works with all IP protocols. [/QUOTE] Ethereal is available for Windows. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/7 "2008-03-23T17:32:38Z")
Ethereal is no longer under active development. Wireshark is a Ethereal fork that is being actively developed. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-tell-which-processes-are-using-my-bandwidth/442415/8 "2008-03-23T19:22:33Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] Note that TCPView only works for connections over a TCP socket. Anything using UDP, ICMP, or some other protocol will not show up. [/QUOTE] It does show UDP sockets, but being connectionless, it shows a lot less info about them. It’s still probably interesting to know what programs have UDP sockets open.