Did you know spyware is typically the root cause of your computer running at a snails pace?

For the novice computer user, this may be difficult, but none the less follow along, you’ll learn something new!

The goal is to run a test on your computer and determine if any spyware is connecting out to the internet, which may cause your computer to slow down.

To run the test, open up your command prompt.
- Windows + R > “CMD”
- Enter “netstat -b 5 > log.txt” without the quotes and hit enter.
- Wait about 2-4 minutes and then press CTRL + C.
- Enter “log.txt” and notepad should pop up with the information captured.

Your log file will have a list of connection attempts to the internet that occured in the last 2-4 minutes. You log should read something like this:

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State PID
TCP computername:7904 ats-mda.dial.aol.com:5190 SYN_SENT 6592
[aolsoftware.exe]

TCP computername:7499 localhost:7500 ESTABLISHED 10668
[aim6.exe]

TCP computername:7500 localhost:7499 ESTABLISHED 10668
[aim6.exe]

In the log you’ll notice that each requesting “Application” is shown in brackets below the connection information. You can then use this information to determine any spyware that is talking to the internet.

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