Software to monitor process running and network trafic

Hi All,

I have two issues

#1. I have installed Windows vista 64bit installed on my laptop. Recently I noticed that even if my laptop is kept idle for many hours it doesn't enter into sleep mode. (Earlier it used to enter into sleep mode after 20 mins of idle time.)

I can see the hard disk light blinking continuously.

I suspect some activity is going on because of which laptop is not entering into sleep mode.

#2. Same case with my broadband. I have a broadband account and it requires a login to get connected to the internet. As a security feature, my ISP has set a idle time limit. If there is no network activity for 20 mins from my laptop, my broadband connect used to get disconnected automatically.
But recently I noticed that if my laptop is idle then even after couple of hours, my broadband is not getting disconnected. It shows some network activity is happening from my laptop.

To debug these issues, I need help from you. I need to know are there any softwares available to monitor what activity is going on on my laptop at any point which is stopping my laptop to enter into sleep mode when idle and to monitor which programming is currently using the internet connection and what data is being sent?

Thanks in advance

Regards,
MulC

Welcome
This excellent tutorial may help
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html?filter[11]=Power Management
You will want to take all the possiblities seriously, but pay particular attention to the mouse, keyboard or nic, waking the computer.
You can, also, try and determine the cause by using the event viewer. After the problem, go to search and type event viewer. Look at all errors at the time of the problem as a possible cause. With the cursor in the left hand panel, start with administrative.
A clean boot may, also, help determine if some software is keeping the computer awake.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

I use a program called tcpview to monitor processes which are establishing a connection to the outside world. search in google and try. you can stop suspicious process and check if your broadband connection stays active always.

Thanks richc46 and bkswvf for the reply.

I will try tcpview.

richc46, actually I forgot to mention that my laptop screen goes off after 10min. So I don't think keyboard or mouse is the culprit as in that case my screen would have become active / on. So I think some application or a background process might be preventing the laptop from going to sleep mode. (I know some tools like uTorrent or DAP if they are downloading something, doesn't allow laptop to enter into sleep mode.)
And thanks for the links, those are helpful

cports.exe is a good free program to monitor connections.