Which Programs are Accessing the Internet from your Computer?

You only have a couple of websites open on your screen and yet the data activity light of the modem / router is constantly blinking indicating that one or more programs are actively uploading or downloading data from the Internet .

How can you easily find out which programs on your computer are accessing the Internet and what websites are they connecting to?

You have quite a few options. If you are on Windows 7 or Vista, you can use the built-in Performance monitor utility to see a list of all running processes that are currently accessing the Internet.

Tech-savvy users may also use the netstat command to get similar information. Alternatively, if you are on a different version of Windows or want something less complex, try TCPEye. This is a free network monitoring utility that creates a self-updating list of all processes that are currently using your network connection.

What makes TCPEye a bit different is that it also lists the websites / servers that the programs are communicating with and the location (country) where those servers are located. Most other network monitoring tools only mention IP addresses and thus it is up to the user to determine the underlying server name.

If you notice an unwanted connection or a suspicious entry in the TCPEye log, just right click to end the process.