Windows 7 broadcasts

[James Egan]

Hello,

I've added a windows 7 (dell inspiron m5040) laptop to my ageing small
home lan and the now the wireless lan indicator on the router is
indicating activity pretty much all the time the laptop is on
irrespective of whether it's in use or sitting idle.

After investigating a little I have discovered that the laptop is
globally (255.255.255.255) broadcasting two udp datagrams, one with
it's mac address and the other with it's hostname all repeated every
one second.

I suspect this isn't standard windows 7 network behaviour. Is there
any way to increase the delay between broadcasts to something more
sensible?

Thanks in advance for any help.



Jim

 

[Ed Cryer]

Hello,

I've added a windows 7 (dell inspiron m5040) laptop to my ageing small
home lan and the now the wireless lan indicator on the router is
indicating activity pretty much all the time the laptop is on
irrespective of whether it's in use or sitting idle.

After investigating a little I have discovered that the laptop is
globally (255.255.255.255) broadcasting two udp datagrams, one with
it's mac address and the other with it's hostname all repeated every
one second.

I suspect this isn't standard windows 7 network behaviour. Is there
any way to increase the delay between broadcasts to something more
sensible?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jim

Rest easy. That's normal. My WLAN light blinks every second or so,
broadcasting its SSID.
I've looked at my router settings. I can switch off wireless completely
and also switch off SSID-broadcasting, but can't see any way to alter
the polling frequency.

Leave it all alone. You'll be in the same company as more than 99% of
all router-users. If you can see neighbours' networks in your Win7
Wireless Network Connection list, well, those come from routers doing
their stuff.
As long as you have a decent password you'll be ok.

Ed

 

[Ed Cryer]

Rest easy. That's normal. My WLAN light blinks every second or so,
broadcasting its SSID.
I've looked at my router settings. I can switch off wireless completely
and also switch off SSID-broadcasting, but can't see any way to alter
the polling frequency.

Leave it all alone. You'll be in the same company as more than 99% of
all router-users. If you can see neighbours' networks in your Win7
Wireless Network Connection list, well, those come from routers doing
their stuff.
As long as you have a decent password you'll be ok.

Ed

Two new networks have recently appeared on my list, BTFON and BTOpenzone-H.
My next-door neighbour has got a new BT broadband router, and as well as
handling his own private network it works as a hot-spot for those
subscription networks.

His private network uses WPA2-PSK security protocol, but the other two
are unsecured.

Ed

 

[James Egan]

Rest easy. That's normal. My WLAN light blinks every second or so,
broadcasting its SSID.
I've looked at my router settings. I can switch off wireless completely
and also switch off SSID-broadcasting, but can't see any way to alter
the polling frequency.

One of the things I tried was switching off the broadcast SSID on the
router in case it was somehow inducing the win7 laptop to constantly
reply but it didn't make any difference. The same hostname and mac
address broadcasts are still made every second by the laptop whether
the router SSID is broadcasting or not.

The program listed as responsible for the packets by Microsoft Network
Monitor 3.4 is "<Unknown>" which is the same program that's
responsible for negotiating the wifi connection.

Leave it all alone. You'll be in the same company as more than 99% of
all router-users. If you can see neighbours' networks in your Win7
Wireless Network Connection list, well, those come from routers doing
their stuff.
As long as you have a decent password you'll be ok.

I'm not particularly worried about the security side of things, They
look like standard broadcast packets but none of the other machines
are behaving in this manner. It's not causing any lan grief, I just
don't like to see unnecessary flashing lights.


Jim

 

[Ken1943]

One of the things I tried was switching off the broadcast SSID on the
router in case it was somehow inducing the win7 laptop to constantly
reply but it didn't make any difference. The same hostname and mac
address broadcasts are still made every second by the laptop whether
the router SSID is broadcasting or not.

The program listed as responsible for the packets by Microsoft Network
Monitor 3.4 is "<Unknown>" which is the same program that's
responsible for negotiating the wifi connection.



I'm not particularly worried about the security side of things, They
look like standard broadcast packets but none of the other machines
are behaving in this manner. It's not causing any lan grief, I just
don't like to see unnecessary flashing lights.


Jim

I would check into the network monitor. I don't think it has anything to
do with the wifi connection. It's only a monitor.
The router I am using now broadcasts 255.255.255.255 like nuts. The two
others I have used, don't do it.


KenW