Strange PS3 behaviour

[#1]

I have a PS3 with Play TV (we're not allowed Sky :() and I connect it to the internet via powerline ethernet adaptors.  Because the powerline adaptor is in sight of me, I can see the light flashing away and the lights on my router flashing away.
Basically my PS3 is constantly accessing the internet and looks like its downloading the entire internet to its hard drive.  The web browser is not open, its on the TV part.  I can see no reason what-so-ever that my PS3 should be accessing the internet, but it is and I have no idea how to find out what it is actually doing.
Does anyone have any experience of this?  How can I capture what data is being sent/recieved?  Why would it need to continually download stuff from the internet?  its not an update, that needs to be done manually (and the account being used on the PS3 isn't an "admin" so can't actually update).
The only thing I can think of is that the PlayTV is accessing the internet for some reason, but I can't figure out what, the TV guide should be OTA, its really annoying because it does suck up the bandwidth.

[#2]

Quote

How can I capture what data is being sent/recieved?

(cough) wireshark
*asbo breaks into song.    They try to make go to rehab i said no no no

[#3]

I did google wireshark ps3, and it directed me to a plusnet posting where the comments said it can only work if I plug the PS3 into my PC and use ICS, unplugging the powerline cable though doesn't produce the same results over wi-fi (no constant downloading)

[#4]

Are there any security issues with these powerline plugs? I know nothing about them apart from the basic concept so this could be a silly question.

[#5]

As far as I'm aware its a closed system circulating around our power supply, I could be wrong though.  I use a DG834G though and attatched devices only showed 4 IP's, mine, the PS3's and 1 for each of the adaptors (seeing if anyone was nicking it was my first thought).  Wi-Fi is also locked down with mac address filtering and a really long password.

[#6]

My (Netgear) Powerline adapters do flash even when there is no traffic being sent over the network. I think they must be pinging each other to check that they are still on line.
Our PS3 doesn't generate any significant  network traffic unless we are actually on-line although we don't have Play TV so I can't comment on that.
How about leaving Play TV on during a time when you know there is no other Broadband usage (overnight?) and see if anything significant shows up in your usage on the portal.
Bob

[#7]

I installed Wireshark to see if it did pick anything up, and it did.
From 198.107.156.128 to 192.168.0.5 (a powerline adapter) there is something from hpvirtgrp which is apparently something to do with HP Virtual Group or somthing, but I don't use anything from HP.
Its currently not spinning up, so may be a good idea to try again later, nothing for my PS3 though which is 192.168.0.3
/edit - my mistake, 0.5 is my PS3.

[#8]

Quote from: dgwebb

I can see no reason what-so-ever that my PS3 should be accessing the internet, but it is and I have no idea how to find out what it is actually doing

Your logged into PSN and the jabber client will be running, background chatter?
Regarding the HD activity, do you have the option set to always buffer the TV?

[#9]

I didn't think of the PS3's chat client.  We don't really use it, but there is a chance its running in the background doing stuff.
/edit - I think I've found the problem, but I have no idea why the problem is happening nor how to stop it.  Basically whenever I access say, a web page, the signal is being sent all across the network.  It's more noticable on youtube because thats a constant stream which makes the powerline adapter lights flash like crazy, it also causes lag on the err serious documentary /coff that I'm watching on youtube.
So why would the traffic be going all across the network instead of to where it should be going?  it should be going directly to 192.168.0.2 rather than flying around all over the place shouldn't it?

[#10]

you have created a simple Ethernet network rather than a switched network

[#11]

See:
http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_difference_between_a_hub_a_switch_and_a_router.html

[#12]

Thanks Kelly, I have no idea how I managed to do that though, I just plug in the cables and keep my fingers crossed.  How do I un-do what I didn't do?  Hard-reset of the router and hope for the best?
/edit - I tried a factory reset, but to no avail, its still apparently sending traffic all over the place.  Could it be to do with the ethernet cable the powerline adapters use?  Or could it be the powerline adapters themselves?
I'm getting rather confused now.  It's a Netgear DG834G which is a 4 port switch, so it *should* be acting like a switch and route the traffic correctly but it isn't, this is driving me potty, where's my hammer?!
Ahh, could it possibly be the power line adapters causing the netgear to stop switching, the powerline adapters are err bridges, which require their own IP address, so my router is assigning them their IP addresses which means the netgear is seeing 3 different IP addresses coming to port 2, so is physically unable to route the traffic properly?  My line of thinking is, lemme see:
Router === Adapter === Adapter === PS3
If we assign router as 01, Adapter's as 02 and 03 and PS3 as 04, the Netgear has to send the traffic out all over the place to get to 04 because it also has 02 and 03, or am I missing something?

[#13]

Is the PC plugged into one of the adaptor's or directly into a port on the router, I'm guessing that's where your watching youtube vids etc?

[#14]

PC is plugged directly into the router (port 1) the powerline adapter is port 2, which eventually plugs in to the PS3.  I've unplugged the powerline adapter now and am using the PS3's wireless (which isn't good, its only at 1% signal, but its pretty much in the next room).

[#15]

as an aside,  i've also noticed on my PS3 is that when play TV is active, it actually pauses all other background downloads etc. anyway to prevent them from interrupting the recording / tv buffer...