"Chris F Clark" <cfc@shell01.TheWorld.com> wrote in message
news:sdd8xj756oj.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com...
> Aluxe <nottelling@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> BTW, one simple (and cheap) way to test if it is your computer
> generating the traffic, is to leave the modem (and router) on and turn
> the computer off. If the router doesn't disconnect after your doing
> that for an appropriately long period (your 15 mins), then you
> probably don't have the router's settings right yet. If turning your
> computer off makes the router disconnect, then it is probably computer
> generated traffic (or the router sensing the ethernet card in your
> computer). If turning the computer off makes the modem disconnect,
> you can see if it is the ethernet card by putting a password on your
> computer so that you have to login, and restarting your computer, but
> not logging in. That will leave your ethernet card on, but because
> you haven't logged in, no programs should be running on your machine
> generating traffic.
>
> Hope this helps,
> -Chris

There is another possibility here.
Some years ago I had a significant problem with the modem/router pair being
quite active when the computer was not in use. This was in win98 days,
before all the 'phone home' concerns.
It ended up that a few of the web sites I had visited kept sending whatever
they needed to, to keep the connection open. Apparently this was done to
enable faster access to their content (ads?) if I re-opened IE or Netscape
You may wish to examine your incoming/outgoing traffic from the router and
compare that to what is reported by the computer.
If you modem or router is receiving packets, you will not get a period of
inactivity when your computer is shut down.

Stuart