I have this problem with DSL in my Mandrake 8.0.

I can connect to the internet fine, no problem.

When I have been connected for a little while, and walk away to do something else and then come back, my DSL seems to be sending and receiving information on its own (I'm not downloading anything).

I normally notice this when I have left the DSL alone for over an hour. The status looks like this:

Sending 0/s; Receiving 0/s ......... Sending 154/s; Receiving 396/s......... Sending 0/s; Receiving 0/s .......... Sending 154/s; Receiving 396/s

The graph activity picture looks like a heart monitor, like a spiky picture.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\.....

This only happens in Linux, not in Windows. I did not download any files or install any new programs, and I did not open any e-mail attachment from Linux.

What's going on????

maybe a look at the connections to and from your machine with (netstat -at ).... or tcpdump maybe that will help you see whats going on.
hope that helps.

rewt

possibly running 'routed' routing daemon?