Just installed an app called Peer Block on my Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate which basically lets you control who your computer "talks to" on the Internet. By selecting appropriate lists of "known bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been "hacked", even entire countries! They can't get in to your computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either.And best of all, it's free!...

Will come back in a while to report just how much traffic was blocked on my machine by the app. Should be interesting.....Go get it here: PeerBlock ? Peerblock Site