internet activity light very busy on modem/router

[merk]

hi all,

on my cable modem, the last 2-3 days the internet activity light is pretty much on solid all the time...usually it blinks on and off but now its just on, like i am downloading something.

The internet activity light on my router (netgear wgr614v4) is also blinking like crazy. But the port activity lights are not.

Anyone know what this might be? is someone pinging the hell out of my router and its blocking it or something?

i actually have my pc set as the DMZ for the router so any random traffic should be going to my pc (got the firewall on). if i disconnect all the pcs from the router, the activity light is still going.

Anyone know whats going on? or how i find out?

 

[wanderer27]

Check your Router logs to see if you're getting Pinged.

Check your Router to see if any other Wireless (unauthorized) users are connected. If others are connected, you may need to change your access key (WEP or WPA) code.

Pull up you Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and watch the Network activity on the Networking Tab - it should be pretty much idle. If you have a Trojan/Spyware/etc. you'll see some decent activity.

 

[merk]

thanks, i forgot about the router logs. I didnt notice anything but i could have missed it considering all the junk from the ad server sites for web advertisements, so i just cleared it and i'll keep an eye on it.
I did check the connected devices and there's nothing connected wirelessly right now. Plus the wireless activity light isnt blinking. And just for the hell of it i just turned off the wireless access and the network activity light is still active.

no unusual activity from my PC... i have the network icon always on in my systray so i can see if there's anything going on. Just the occasional packet or two from my browser and whatnot.

Anything else you can think of?

 

[wanderer27]

Internet (IP) Phone ?

 

[merk]

nope no IP phone. I've only got 2 pc's connected (wired) right now. And the activity light for both of those ports on the router is not active. There's an occasional flicker, but nothing to indicate why the router seems to be having non-stop traffic with the cable modem.

neither of my PC's should be running anything that would cause continous traffic like this and as far as i can tell, neither of them are doing this. It seems as though there is traffic going between the cable modem and the router, but its not going to anything connected to the router.

 

[JackMDS]

It is a special feature for the Holidays . Blinking Lights, :light:

Actually it is a normal behavior on most Cable Systems and nothing is wrong with it.

It related to the Group Nature of the Shared Cable lines.

 

[merk]

ahh, so someone else on the network is doing something generating a lot of traffic? but shouldnt the cable modem filter that traffic out and prevent my router from seeing it?

 

[kevnich2]

He's right for the most part, on cable modem systems, the activity light pretty much stays flashing 24/7. Your router doesn't see anything but the modem will keep going off. Some cable modems won't indicate any activity unless there's actual activity on that cable modem but most modems will flash 24/7.

 

[JackMDS]

The Router's WAN light would Blink in tandem with the Modem.

However, if set correctly this activity does not pass the WAN port to the LAN.

 

[merk]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
He's right for the most part, on cable modem systems, the activity light pretty much stays flashing 24/7. Your router doesn't see anything but the modem will keep going off. Some cable modems won't indicate any activity unless there's actual activity on that cable modem but most modems will flash 24/7.

the routers light does blink. And i know the modem activity light will flash. But for the last few days instead of flashing, its just on constantly. Which is unusual because previously it would blink. The only time it used to stay on solid was when i was downloading something.

 

[merk]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The Router's WAN light would Blink in tandem with the Modem.

However, if set correctly this activity does not pass the WAN port to the LAN.

well as far as i can tell none of the traffic is going past the router...there's no unusual activity on any of the internal ports.

Does this mean though that my router is seeing ALL the traffic for all the local users of the cable modem service? I had thought the cable modem filters out the traffic not intended for me.

 

[JackMDS]

Nope, Cable Modem is just a bridge, it filters nothing, it does not even know that you "exsists".

 

[merk]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Nope, Cable Modem is just a bridge, it filters nothing, it does not even know that you "exsists".

well now i understand why people would complain the cable modem is unsecure ;p

 

[newmachineoverlord]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
He's right for the most part, on cable modem systems, the activity light pretty much stays flashing 24/7. Your router doesn't see anything but the modem will keep going off. Some cable modems won't indicate any activity unless there's actual activity on that cable modem but most modems will flash 24/7.

So why is it that my "pc activity" light on my cable modem is always blinking, even when I disable the network connection through windows control panel, but turns off when I unplug the cat5 cable? This phenomenon panicked a technophobe relative of mine (two states away so I can't directly inspect anything) leading him to shut off his computer and not use it since, so if you have a link to a nice, reassuring, fuzzy website that explains this to be perfectly harmless that would be nice. Especially if it says "Don't Panic" in big, friendly looking letters.

 

[futuristicmonkey]

Originally posted by: newmachineoverlord

Originally posted by: kevnich2
He's right for the most part, on cable modem systems, the activity light pretty much stays flashing 24/7. Your router doesn't see anything but the modem will keep going off. Some cable modems won't indicate any activity unless there's actual activity on that cable modem but most modems will flash 24/7.

So why is it that my "pc activity" light on my cable modem is always blinking, even when I disable the network connection through windows control panel, but turns off when I unplug the cat5 cable? This phenomenon panicked a technophobe relative of mine (two states away so I can't directly inspect anything) leading him to shut off his computer and not use it since, so if you have a link to a nice, reassuring, fuzzy website that explains this to be perfectly harmless that would be nice. Especially if it says "Don't Panic" in big, friendly looking letters.

Take an OSI level 2 look at the interface connected to the modem (ie use tcpdump or ethereal). You'll see arp requests from all of the default gateways (routers) of your isp. It's nothing to worry about.