A million packets for no apparant reason.

Greetings,
I've got a computer here, that i'm trying to spruce up (get working better, getting rid of the adware, tweaking, etc), and one big problem I'm noticing. It uses it's wireless card just fine, but when I plug it into my switch, I watch the network status, and it sends several thousand packets every time it updates (well, I just mean that's as soon as I actually know about them). So if the computer is left alone for a few minutes, it says upwords of a million packets have been sent (but very VERY few recieved). (It's wireless doesn't do anything weird, and it is used for the internet. The LAN is used for LAN games (starcraft etc)).

Nonetheless, can anybody help me remedy this problem? I tried getting zonealarm to put up a firewall, but it is only making sure nothing uses the web, doesn't want to touch the LAN, since it doesn't mess with the web.
Or at the very least, perhaps reccomend a program that can analyze how what packets are being sent where by what?

Thanks

Hmm..
I bet its got some virus on there thats trying to send spam. Get AVG on a disk, and reboot the computer into Safe Mode. Run AVG, and clean it up.

Well, I found a packet anylzer and used it. Although it wasn't giving me the insane number of connections that the windows stats of it say, however every 1-1.5 seconds, it sends a packet exactly like this:

Mac Source:00.E0.B8.41.7E
Mac Destination: 01.80.C2.00.00.00
Frame (0026)

Data:
0000 01 80 C2 00 00 00 00 E0 B8 41 10 7E 00 26 42
000F 42 03 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 02 E0 B8 41 10 7E
001E 00 00 00 00 80 00 02 E0 B8 41 10 7E 80 00 00
002D 00 08 00 02 00 05 00

(or the other version of that data)
.........A.~.&BB...........A.~.........A.~........


Any idea what any of this means?
What really perplexes me, is it only has a mac source/dest no IP source/dest.

Can you run HijackThis and post the log here?

I don't understand your setup... wireless to access the internet, but wired to access your LAN? You should use "topology". It's OK to have say a computer or a laptop to access the bridged wireless network and other computers use just wired. But having a computer use both does not make sense in your means of use for the network.

By chance I note that the MAC address 01.80.C2.00.00.00 is used for Spanning Tree Protocol to send out Brige Protocol Data Units.

These establish a route across switches and avoid packets going around in circles where there is a possible loop.

If STP is turned off on one switch and connected switches are redundant it might cause a loop back, and generate millions of packets whizzing round aimlessly in your LAN.
If you have both a wired and wireless connection it could be possible?

Didn't see this one coming.