Why is steam now continually using network bandwidth?

[Seperallis]

...and more importantly, how to make it stop?

So, this is a new thing I very recently discovered when I came back to my computer, and noticed that my bandwidth monitor was showing very small yet consistent network usage...so small, it was measured in bytes/second. After pondering the cause, I turned off steam, and the data stream ended as well; turn it back on, and the data stream begins anew.

Being on an incredibly slow metered connection, I found this quite irksome, especially since I couldn't find the cause. Used to be, when steam was sitting idle, it would use none of my bandwidth unless something prompted it, such as friend activity, or messaging someone, etc.

I immediately turned broadcasting off when it was released, and I haven't had autoupdates enables for years (on my games; pity the same can't be done to the client, itself).

What in the world is causing this?

[FlamingDeath]

What are you using to monitor this bandwidth usage?

How consistent are we talking? is it intermittent? is it literally constant.

You could have a look at TCPview by Microsoft acquired Sysinternals

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

Or the Resource Monitor found in task manager, if your'e using Win7 or above

This will at least give you an idea of the end point and which application is sending packets

[Seperallis]

FlamingDeath™ eredeti hozzászólása:

What are you using to monitor this bandwidth usage?

I use...wait for it..."Bandwidth Meter;" I know, a shocking revelation. It's just a free open-source program whose website could easily be mistaken for a malware scam, yet it's proven surprisingly competent. Have had it since 2013 with no issues (so far).

As for the consistency, yeah, it's intermittent, like a usage of about 30-50 bytes every 10 seconds or so.

Yep, I did have a look at the resource monitor while I was "investigating," but the only things using my network card were two internal components (that talk to each other, not using internet), and Steam.

[Azza ☠]

Da NSA is monitoring you, welcome to 'murica, land of the paranoid...

Lets see - Network activity:

Steam Client WebHelper (13 connections)

Outbound | TCP | External IP Address | Port: 80

Receive: 0.10KB/s
Send: 0.02KB/s

Total: 1.97KB/s

I can get this as low as 5 connections - 0.11KB/s total receive/sent, almost idle.

Looks like pingback / keep-alive calls. External IP Address all relate to steam or steam cache servers.

I've even seen one with a funky name called "hosted-by.illuminati.es" used for Steam Cache and Facebook Cache, located in Arizona - Scottsdale. I clearly assume it to be the work of the New World Order. Illuminati confirmed.

[FlamingDeath]

Like Azza has said, it's likely pingback / keep-alive calls. Use TCPview to confirm

[Seperallis]

Thanks for the suggestion, that does seem to be the case. Still no idea why it's recently started that, but at least now I know what it is...