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Subject:
Activity Light On Cable Modem
Category: Computers > Internet Asked by: marrett88-ga List Price: $5.00 |
Posted:
03 Jan 2003 13:03 PST
Expires: 02 Feb 2003 13:03 PST Question ID: 137097 |
I use a broadband cable modem service .The modem is a Motorola Surfboard(SB3100) cable modem. The PC runs on Windows XP Pro.I have Norton Personal Firewall and the XP native firewall enabled. I have been noticing (for more than 2 months now ) that the Activity light generally blinks continuously on the cable modem even though the PC may be on and there is no user activity .During these times , there does not seem to be any hard disk activity ( the hard disk light just blinks very momentatrily once every few seconds , which seems normal) The Norton Firewall shows no hacker activity. Where can I get some info about why the activity light is continously blinking. |
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Subject:
Re: Activity Light On Cable Modem
Answered By: tutuzdad-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:28 PST Rated: |
Dear marrett88-ga; Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question. Don’t panic. This is not unusual. Several different things ate going on in the background whether you are intentionally sending/receiving or not. If you are certain your are virus free, most likely the blinking light is caused by the cable service provider, who is talking to you computer in regular automated fashion. Have you ever see the commercial where the guy with the cell phone is walking around saying “Can you hear me now?”. This is the same thing that a broadband service provider does. The provider sends a signal that constantly asks the end users’ computers “Are you still there?” and your computers ideally reply, “Yes. I am still here”. This digitized “conversation” is called “pinging”. I have a satellite connection and mine does this quite often – more so at some times, I’ve noticed, than others. If, for whatever reason, my computer fails to respond (in the case of a satellite, for example, a huge storm cloud or heavy rain can obscure the signal) my software, which is constantly auditing my system locally for connection problems, will alert me. There are also other activities which take place via cable modem that could be causing this activity light to flash, such as periodic ranging, station maintenance, software upgrade, SNMP, DHCP renewal etc. All of these are absolutely harmless and use so little bandwidth that the drain should be negligible. If the light ever stops blinking…now that’s a problem. Until then, relax and surf on. I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any questions about my research please post a clarification request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near future. Thank you for using Google Answers. Best regards; Tutuzdad-ga INFORMATION SOURCES CABLE MODEMS Q&A http://www.cable-modems.org/Q&A/index.php?one_question=55 SEARCH STRATEGY SEARCH ENGINE USED: Google ://www.google.com SEARCH TERMS USED: blinking light cable modem |
marrett88-ga
rated this answer:
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Subject:
Re: Activity Light On Cable Modem
From: tutuzdad-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:01 PST |
Thank you very much for your generosity! I look forward to working with you again very soon. tutuzdad-ga |
Subject:
Re: Activity Light On Cable Modem
From: calaboss-ga on 04 Jan 2003 03:18 PST |
Thanks, marrett88, for saving me the 10 spot. I've been wondering about that exact thing for quite some time myself |
Subject:
Re: Activity Light On Cable Modem
From: markp-ga on 13 Jan 2003 21:25 PST |
Very interesting,... I was not aware that such "maintenence" accounted for so much activity in terms of blinking lights. this is all true, but leaves out that hackers / people continuously scan ranges of IP addresses example: 69.50.1.1 through 69.50.255.255 you get the idea. they might also be scanning many different ports, or a few common ones for trojan horses / backdoors that are installed on unknowing peoples computers. - even if they didnt put it there themselves, they can discover them there, and then use them. sub seven is a common one. there could be 1000's of people scanning ip's and each one could be scanning 1000 ports on your computer, though not all at the same time. You should note that hackers know the range of common IP addresses for certain ISP's if not all ISP's. since this info is publicly available. They dont know WHO's computer the IP / phone # belongs to, but they know it exists, sort of like you coul dial every phone #, but you dont know who you are getting. anyway, they know NOT to pry into a satellite ISP IP range of addresses, because it is less good than say comast @home network of IP addresses, or Verizon DSL, etc. The satellite has a larger latency, and much less bandwidth. though it is still better than dial up, it does not compare in bandwidth and latency to a dsl or cable modem connection. Another, and more probable answer is that you are running a P2P app, like Kazaa, Morpheus, Bear Share, Limewire, etc. and they have "indexed" you and your IP address, IP is like your telephone # for your computer. and even though you are not online, or are online, It is my belief that your computer is still in the index, sort of like your phone # is on a list for telemarketers, only these are rabid, caffeinated, non stop telemarketers. This is from my personal experience. |
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