# My Wireless Router WAN light keeps flashing



## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

My wireless router WAN Light won't stop blinking and didn't consistently blink before. It was after I set a password that is started to. Before, it only blinked when a device was using it like my DS. Now it blinks nonstop. Is there any way to reverse this. I'm uisng XP MCE and a D-Link DI-524 Rev C Router with Earthlink internet and an RCA DCM425 Modem and a linksys SPA-2100 phone adapter. Even though my internet works, I'd like to revert it oonly blinking when something uses it (for reasons not disclosed). I'm using firmware 3.23.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

i will move to networking 
its possible things are access the web - like updates downloading etc - 


> It was after I set a password that is started to.


what password ?
take it off and see if it stops


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

etaf said:


> i will move to networking
> its possible things are access the web - like updates downloading etc -
> what password ?
> take it off and see if it stops


I did think of that, but that did not stop the blinking. There is no other computer using my wireless router. I set it up primarily for my game systems to use.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

switch you wireless OFF /Disable it and see if the blinking stops


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

etaf said:


> switch you wireless OFF /Disable it and see if the blinking stops


If by that you mean turn off the internet, it stops rapidly blinking and it occasionally blinks. If not, then what do I have to do?


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

> If by that you mean turn off the internet


Yes - turn off by software means on your PC access to the internet 
If thats what you did and


> it stops rapidly blinking


then its your PC that is communicating with the router 
That could be valid - or you may have malware on the PC communicating with the internet

Theres a note here of a number of program which can monitor your PC http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12645258 I have never used so you may want to be BEWARE 
OR
you could post a HJT log - see my signature for a link to the program - and one of the forums gurus can decode - this may take a few days before you got a response


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

Ok, update. Turning off my modem stosp the blinking, but turning off wireless through the settings stops the WLAN light from starting but the WAN Light keeps on blinking (even when computer is off).


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

That is perfectly normal for most ISP's. Both Comcast and Verizon FiOS have continuous traffic on the WAN side, even with nothing happening and all devices disconnected.

I once took a look at what was going on with Comcast, and it was a continuous stream of ARP requests over a fairly wide IP address range.


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

The thing that puzzles me is that this didn't happen before. I'd like to restore its previous behavior.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

When I had Comcast, I had the same situation. For the first couple of years, the light only blinked when I was actually doing something. It was a very convenient way to see if there was anything going on over the network. After Comcast did some reconfiguration one day, the light started flashing like crazy, that's when I tracked it down.

I really think you aren't going to change this.


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

Ok. I have one final question that might be an alternate way. Is there any program that would let me know when a device like my game system is communicating using my internet connection?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Not really, the only place that traffic could be monitored is inside the router.


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

There is one last thing. Before I had a password set, WAN would only blink with activity and The #1 light would blink nonstop.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, remove the password and see if the behavior changes. FWIW, I can't imagine why configuring a password would have any effect on this.


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## techman187 (Mar 5, 2010)

Removing the password doesn't do anything when I last checked. There must be some way to restore its original behavior, where WAN blinked only when in use, and #1 blinked nonstop.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I doubt it. I'm guessing this is a change to the ISP network. You could change ISP's.


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