Putty generating too much traffic (to my Linode server)

Question

I am using Putty to SSH into my server. I installed iptraf to see my network usage. And (horrors) my IP address is sending in traffic at my server's SSH at 60kbps. Keeping Putty open for a few hours can generate GBs of traffic.

I know that WinSCP doesnt generate idle traffic. What seems to be the problem?

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EDIT:ANSWER

I ran wireshark along with Putty. Turns out that iptraf was the problem. An interactive app which constantly updates the display generates lots of traffic. An idle terminal generates no traffic.

Answer 1

As per your update regarding iptraf, this is common to any console app that updates large chunks of screen regularly.

One solution if you want to leave such things running is to run them via screen (available in just about any Linux distribution) or similar (tmux is a popular alternative, though not as widely available in standard repositories so you may need to compile it up yourself). Have the tool running in one screen "window" and an idle shell in another, leave the idle one on normally and switch when you want to look at the tool's output for a short while. You can even completely log off and leave the tool(s) running so you can log back in again at a later time and find them still there doing their job.