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Q: Activity Light On Cable Modem ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   3 Comments )
Question  
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.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Activity Light On Cable Modem
Answered By: tutuzdad-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:28 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
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:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $5.00
thanks

Comments  
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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