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Mystery Packets

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by ameliapumo

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I have a windows 2000 server connected to a network hub, and three other PC'S (Win 98 x 2 and win ME) conected. On the Local Area Connection icon in system tray (on server) if double clicked it is showing 3 packets sent per second. What are they and where are they going. It still happens if all other PC's are disconnected, and no internet connection is present.

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by mshavrov

Microsoft Windows computers are pretty chatty by the nature. They are sending different type of requests, keepalieves, confirmations every now and then. And since you have your computers connected to hub, your server hears his own transmitted packets. And believe me, 3 packets per second is very very low rate - it may create kilobytes per second just doing nothing (for example, you may have Windows 2000 Advanced Server with "clustering" turned on. And computer will send tons of broadcasts trying to discover neighbors. So, don't worry a much.

And if you are really want to determin what kind of traffic is in your network - install some kind of Network Sniffer on one of your PCs. I believe there are some Shareware or Trial versions available over the Internet.

Good luck,

Michael Shavrov
(CCNP, CCDP, MCSE W2K, MCSE+I, Sun SCSA, ...)

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