A couple of weeks back I faced the famous bandwidth leeching problem. I was using Windows XP Professional Edition Service Pack 2. Some process automatically started sucking my bandwidth at the rate of 1 MB per minute, bytes were received not sent! There was something like “automatic updates†going on. I searched Google and didn't find out any solution, only dead ends. Even some Vista folks were facing the same problem. So want to know the solution, but first have a look at the steps that I tried:

Step 1: Find and disable any extra bandwidth sucking programs

Then, I ran some bandwidth monitoring programs like NetLimiter, Bandwidth Monitor and Zone Alarm and found out leeching was taking place through no other process than windows very own “svchost.exeâ€. When I restrict svchost.exe, through Zone Alarm, even the normal browsing requests were not served. When I tried to kill that particular process ID (through NetLimiter), another process started consuming the bandwidth, exactly after every 10 minutes.

Step 2: Turn off Automatic Updates

I made sure that my Windows automatic updates were turned off. I went to the Automatic Updates Menu (Right click My Computer, click Properties, and Click the Automatic Updates tab). Then I selected a radio button with text “Turn off Automatic Updatesâ€, I clicked Apply and OK buttons.

The problem still remained unsolved.

Step 3: Scanning the system

I scanned my systems for viruses/worms and trojans through some well known anti virus and spy removal programs. I tried McAfee, AVG, and Norton with their latest virus definitions. In the spyware section I used Spybot Search and Destroy, Spy Sweeper. None of the software was able to fix the problem.

Step 4: Brute Force

Finally after several days of disappointment I went to the services menu. I tried to disable different weird looking services and finally found out the trouble maker.

To access the services menu through: Start>Run and type services.msc

Alternatively you can go to: Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services (double click it to open)

You will see a menu like one shown below:

Now try to look for a service named “Background Intelligent Transfer Serviceâ€, mine was at number seven just below “Automatic Updates†service. I was surprised to find out Background Intelligent Transfer Service was enabled on my system, although the Automatic Updates was disabled. I stopped the service by clicking the stop button and Walla! All the extra bandwidth utilization was suspended. I also disabled the service on startup.