Activity Monitor Question

Question

If there was a book titled "Activity Monitor for Dummies," I'd buy it.  My question is in reference to the Network activity mode -- when  I'm monitoring network activity, I'm seeing a modest amount of packet activity being transmitted and received by my computer. Is this activity related to tracking operations being done by a third party?  In my innocent little world, I would expect to see zero bytes comming out of my 'puter when I'm not using it to communicate with the web. Can someone please explain.

Answer 1

... Is this activity related to tracking operations being done by a third party? 
Possible, but very unlikely. Your computer routinely communicates with your router and other computers on your LAN. Even if you didn't have a router at all, your computer would constantly be attempting to find a network connection. Macs are relentless about that.
If you doubt this, simply disconnect your router from the outside world. You will still see some activity. Only if you disable all network connections in System Preferences > Network will you see no communication at all.
In my innocent little world, I would expect to see zero bytes comming out of my 'puter when I'm not using it to communicate with the web. Can someone please explain.
If you are concerned about what processes want to connect to the outside world, you need Little Snitch: http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/
If you are concerned that your computer has been taken over by a "bot" click here: http://www.botnetchecker.com/ Do not download advertised anti-malware junk from there or anywhere else though.