Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
veronica2020
Newbie

Hello,

I want to know if the non-logical difference in bytes received and bytes sent is signaling a securty breach. 

I controll my wireless connection very tightly; meaning, I only enable wireless when I am goint to use the internet wirlessly.  If I am not connected through the internet wirelessly, wireless part of router is disabled. 

However, through the router's control panel traffic monitoring interface, I have noticed that the amout of bytes I received vs. the amount of bytes sent doesn't make sense, and I wonder if this discrepancy may actually indicate a security breach of my network. 

For example, I watched video through wireless connection for 3 hours. Before I started the wireless connection, the router's control panel traffic monitoring screen showed no bytes sent no bytes received. After the 3 hours, I got ths stats: 

Received Bytes 101233736

Sent Bytes 3629425895

This is a huge difference for activity which I think is mostly receiveing data packets, and not sending packets elsewhere. 

This difference is more than 2G of data sent out while I was watching video and doing nothing else. How can this be? I get almost 1G of video data, and I sent our 3G of data just watching video? 

Could I get some feedback on why is there such a big difference, and whether this is normal traffic acitivty given the circumsances I described (e.g. watching video content, not doing anything else). 

Thank you

Labels (1)
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Re: Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
thetick1234
Specialist - Level 1

Looks normal to me.

From the router much more data is to your PC and much less data is needed to sent from your PC.

Re: Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
veronica2020
Newbie

thetick1234,

You are not making sense, and probably you are not paying attention to the information I provide. 

You state: "From the router much more data is to your PC [received bytes] and much less data is needed to sent from your PC [sent bytes]" If I understandi it correctly, this means more data is supposed to be coming in, less data is supposed to be going out. THIS IS NOT WHAT IS HAPPENING.

I indicated I have MORE DATA being sent OUT, relative to the data SENT IN  while I watch video. 

I repeat the stats:

Received Bytes 101233736 ~ 1G

Sent Bytes 3629425895 ~ 3G

This means, more data is going OUT, less data is coming in, while I am strweaming video, not browsing the internet  nor uploading data to a site. 

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Re: Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

You didn't specify which connection you are reading/

e.g. on my router

the network connection reads High send, i.e, the router to devices in the house.

sent 44632588543 received 1675337637

while my broaband (coax) the receive is high.  I.e. the internet

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Re: Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
veronica2020
Newbie

I am reading the wireless activity from the router's "Traffic Monitoring" screen. Please view the images below:

image

AFTER I WACTHED VIDEO THROUGH THE WIRELESS. I DID NOT DO ANY OTHER ACTIVITY THAN STREAMING VIDEO. 

image

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Re: Confusing Packets Received vs. Packets Sent... Security breach?
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Currently can't read your screen

I was reading from the same screen on my Actiontec version F

Remember the router is SENDING to your devices that Receive the packets.

Traffic Monitoring
NameNetwork (Home/Office)EthernetBroadband Connection (Ethernet)CoaxBroadband Connection (Coax)Wireless Access PointWAN PPPoEWAN PPPoE 2
StatusConnectedConnectedDisabledConnectedConnectedDisabledDisabledDisabled
NetworkNetwork (Home/Office)Network (Home/Office)Broadband ConnectionNetwork (Home/Office)Broadband ConnectionNetwork (Home/Office)Broadband ConnectionBroadband Connection
Underlying DeviceEthernet
Wireless Access Point
Coax
Coax Stats
     Broadband Connection (Ethernet)Broadband Connection (Coax)
Connection TypeBridgeHardware Ethernet SwitchEthernetCoaxCoaxWireless 802.11n Access PointPPPoEPPPoE
IP Address192.168.1.1   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx   
Received Packets103280019109006 121899235061175   
Sent Packets3453560019451466 220833848960077   
Received Bytes16832833211459093580 42831159546279685640   
Sent Bytes4467791457617813668334 282974554831334772265   
Receive Errors00 00   
Receive Drops00 00   
Time Span613:42:39613:42:39 613:42:39613:42:39   
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