Can network traffic be logged?

[Sam Stoat]

While I'm playing Battlefield 2, I get a warning of a connection problem. This lasts about 4 seconds, then again about 3 seconds after that. This used to happen once every half hour or so, but its become much more frequent, to the point where the game is unplayable.

I have a network meter gadget on the desktop and I've noticed a spike in traffic at about the same intervals. At first, I thought it was Skype or Avast to blame, but I can count them out after stopping each one.

I need some way to log which program accesses the network at what time, so I can compare the spikes to the correct time and hopefully find the program responsible. Is this possible?

 

[Guy Scharf]

Here are a couple possibilities. I have used both with Windows XP Pro but tested neither with Windows 7.

Wireshark will log all packets, which will allow you to analyze what sites the traffic is to and examine the packets themselves to whatever depth you care to look. I've seen references to running this on Win 7, even 64-bit.

The SAX2 Intrusion Detection System is perhaps a simpler approach; it will show you the connections that are open and the number of packets sent to each connection. Vista is listed as a supported OS but I've seen no mention of Windows 7.