best windows network 'sniffer'?
 

what is a quick and easy program I can use to see what is generating packets on my own computer? I see 100 MB in half an hour when the system is supposedly sitting there idle, so I want to be able to tell which program the bandwidth is being used (maybe adware or something?)

wire shark

netstat will show you the packets, but not what is sending them
try netstat -a

wire shark gets my vote, althought I dont really use it, since I only sniff media links

ok, I figured out the culprit, it was a fucking webcamclub webpage that was open that streamed a gigabyte of advertising on my mobile card without me realizing :321GFY:1orglaugh:helpme:mad:

+1 for wireshark

Wireshark, formerly known as Ethereal, definitely.

Ethereal

i still use an old etherreal version

I believe this is a good reference http://sectools.org/sniffers.html