Party,

I think you stated you are using a plug-in modem, not wireless. If that is the case nobody outside can use your bandwidth, it's usage from within your PC [and laptop now it seems].

Sad to say, that if you connected your laptop to your PC using USB you could have easily transfered a rootkit Trojan to your laptop. It sure sounds like you have transfered something!

I would suggest you check for nasty rootkits by downloading a small free program to check for rootkits hiding a bot Trojan: http://research.pandasecurity.com/a...rsion-1.07.aspx

Panda Anti-Rootkit is a program that uses latest generation technology to detect and remove rootkits. Rootkits are programs designed to hide processes, files or Windows Registry entries. This type of software is used by hackers to hide their tracks or to insert threats surreptitiously on compromised computers. There are types of malware that use rootkits to hide themselves on a computer [hiding them from any firewall, anti-virus or any melware/spyware apps].

There is no guarantee that even if the program finds a rootkit that it will fix the problem, but there is a good chance that it will. Please let me know what you found if anything, before deleting. One step at a time, so lets rule out [or in] Rootkits first.