G'day, I have been having problems with my internet connection (modem dial-up 46-50kbps)slowing down and some times just stopping. It will start again but it could be up to five minutes. While this happens I tried running netstat -an in DOS and I get all these listings of IP addresses, but also the status of the protocol ie time_wait, close_wait, sync_sent, established etc. Can anyone point me in the direction of some texts that might explain what these things mean. I would google, but I'm not sure what it is that I'm looking for right now. Thanks for any info. BTW I've run most of the anti-virus programmes that those good people on the security/virus forum suggest. regards, Elric

You are wanting to view open ports? This utility is much easier for me to use. It is free and extremely easy to use. Plus it allows you to see what application opened the port and will let you close the port if you want to. active ports</a. It works great with XP too. Hope this helps.

protocol ie time_wait, close_wait, sync_sent, established etc. That statement is letting you know that the Application ie=Internet Explorer, established a connection to the internet.

Here's another one. I just realized you are on a 98 machine. Microscan

Hi Dave02 Just wondering how reliable the utility is as it's uploaded from www.smartline.ru (Russia)

The first one I mentioned. Active ports. Is as reliable as I've seen. I've had no problems with it. The other utility for 98. I've never used.

G'day, Thanks for the quick response Dave02. I've just downloaded that reference you gave me, and I will have a play with it just as soon as I get off the net. That thing about looking at ports and closing them sounds about right. Basically, the problem is that my connection just "hangs" for minuites at a time and then comes to life. Netstat reports a lot of close_wait states, and I managed to find an article about Window's inefficient use of them (unfortunately, it was a LINUX site and it didn't help). So, the bottom line is that I want to be able to determine if this is normal (ie my ISP might be at fault or the site(s) might be slow)or whether there is a virus of some sort in my machine. I do have zonealarm installed. Anyway, thanks for the link. regards, Elric