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You can open a cmd (dos) window and type the command netstat -rn . This will give you all the network connections to your machine. Also depending on your network there is always a bit of network chatter ex: arp requests &nbsp;and such.
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you can use a program like wireshark to see what those packets are.
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There will always be activity on all NICs on the network. The server could be sending small packets of data as broadcasts to the network, responding to ping requests or a whole host of other things. Without completely isolating the network with just 1 device on 1 switch, you can't stop the communications. Even with that config, you probably would still get some activity.<br />
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-tigermatt
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Downloading wireshark now...
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Wireshark showed me who the server is communicating with... thanks guys for your help... problem solved...
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I'm sitting here watching the status of my network connection. &nbsp;Nothing else is running, but when I look at the statistics for the NIC, I see small packages going both directions. &nbsp;<br />
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How do I tell what is causing this (i.e. who is requesting these packets)?
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I'm sitting here watching the status of my network connection.  Nothing else is running, but when I look at the statistics for the NIC, I see small packages going both directions.  

How do I tell what is causing this (i.e. who is requesting these packets)?

Why is my NIC busy?

Windows Server 2003 was based on Windows XP and was released in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It also had derivative versions for clusters, storage and Microsoft’s Small Business Server. Important upgrades included integrating Internet Information Services (IIS), improvements to Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP), and the migration to Automated System Recovery (ASR).