[rescue] What is this traffic?

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: microcode at zoho.com
" 
" On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 02:19:19PM +0000, microcode at zoho.com wrote:
" > On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 01:25:54PM +0100, Jonathan Katz wrote:
" > > On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 1:24 PM,  <microcode at zoho.com> wrote:
" > > > The light goes crazy whenever the switch is connected to the router. I have
" > > > not seen anything that gives me any clues apart from that. The light is
" > > > flashing at a high rate all the time, regardless of traffic from any of the
" > > > boxes on my network.
" > > 
" > > What happens when you plug a system directly into the ADSL router?
" > 
" > It's been a while since I did that. I could do that but I am not sure what
" > we would learn from it since the router is not showing any unusual
" > traffic. Only the light on the switch port from the router is going
" > wild.
" 
" To be (hopefully) a little clearer: only the light on the switch, for the
" port where the router is plugged into the switch, is flashing at a high
" rate. The router WAN/LAN port lights behave normally based on idle, usage,
" etc. There is no indication of high activity on the router itself, nor on
" boxes connected to the switch.

[to further clarify: the local ethernet port lights on the adsl router
- the other end of the switch cable - are quiet?]

but if you unplug the switch and plug a computer directly into the
router you could have one of two outcomes:
1. the computer gets buried with this spurious 'traffic' from the
   router, and the switch is not the problem.
2. the computer internet connection flies at your full 15Mb/s with no
   hitches, suggesting the switch is the cause.

can your isp remotely upgrade your router?  perhaps they've changed a
setting and it's no longer replying properly to some housekeeping
message from the switch [keepalive?], causing the switch to go
ballistic.  perhaps it *is* responding, in a way that it shouldn't.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought