[SOLVED]Constant modem activity

[natchezjohn]

I'm running mint 14 mate and there is constant dsl modem activity (several flashes per second) even when the computer's idle and nothing showing but the desktop.

This has been going on for months. It can't be good - right?

Mint14 is the only os on my box but I did live start ubuntu and linuxdebian (mate) and it doesn't happen with them.

What is causing it? How do I stop it?

[homerscousin]

First, I'm no expert. I have a cable modem connection and my activity lite is constantly flashing when sitting at a desktop. I see this as normal. Even when Firefox or anything similar is not open. I think it is just normal procedure for a network system to periodically send and receive basic signals, like 'keep alive' when it is up and running. Maybe a live distro doesn't operate quite the same way. I'm more interested in watching my network activity reported in Conky. If I see more than a few hundred bytes per second download, something is not normal when all apps are closed. I really think this is just normal working network activity.

[natchezjohn]

Thanks, I'll check out Conky

[homerscousin]

Hi, just a few more words. Conky is an awesome efficient utility you can add to your desktop. You can customize the heck out of it, but it does come with a learning curve. Check the Conky subforum here and elsewhere. The Mate desktop, which I have not used must have some sort of system monitoring software installed that would show network activity. I just wanted to reassure you that this is very likely normal and you have no security issues. Linux is very secure right out of the box. Just keep reading and learning because it only gets better.

[mfluder]

Hi. Just because your desktop is idle does not mean there are not internet connections being made in the background. Various applications do this by default. Also, There are robotic crawlers automatically scouring the internet looking for open ports. Your firewall gets hit by that constantly. Linux is quite secure as long you enable the firewall and don't allow ANYTHING untrusted to run as root. If you are still worried that connections are being made without your permission, you can try terminal command: watch 'sudo lsof -i' That will show you internet connections in real time. You could also try wireshark which shows active connections on your machine.

[natchezjohn]

Turns out it was mail-notification which I had installed that was constanly active. I have uninstalled it and the flashing modem has stopped.