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arp broadcast flood on home pc

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I am not a programmer or code savy so I'll try and describe whats going on and maybe you guys can point me in the right direction.

I have a single desktop connected to a netgear cm1000 cable modem that goes out to cox cable. There is no printer or other computers attached and it has no wireless capability. I am running windows 10 LTSB.

When I first installed and booted up I dont think this was happening but it is now. I notice now cause the little blinky light keeps blinking all the time telling me the modem is doing stuff no matter if I am running anything or not. I probably shouldnt care. But I do.

Anyway, I loaded in wireshark and the link shows that I am having arp broadcast traffic all the time.

here's a link to the traffic at tinypic: http://oi67.tinypic.com/2v3lpu8.jpg

This traffic seems to start when I boot up, not seemingly linked to any programs I am intentionally running. I have researched this issue a bit and one post discussed how they had same problem and turned out to be a printer driver with a document in que trying to contact a printer that was no longer plugged in. I dont have now nor have I had a printer attached to this pc.

In real basic terms, is there a way I can turn this traffic off?

pc user's avatar
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pc user
asked 2019-03-11 06:57:08 +0000
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Judging from the varying IP addresses, these are the joys of cable internet. What you basically have is a largely shared broadcast domain which you share to get your 'broadband' service over the cable. One of the side effects of this is that you see the broadcast traffic of the other participants on the cable, from around the Las Vegas area. Go look up the location of the IP addresses you see and find then all nearby.

Jaap's avatar
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Jaap
answered 2019-03-11 07:29:59 +0000
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So... I went and checked my IP address against what the log is recording and seems you are right. In the 'tell' destination I dont see my IP address popping up. So this is all arp traffic from other computers also attached to the cox cable system and has nothing to do with me?

If so, I assume theres nothing I can do about it. I guess just ignore the blinkey light on the modem or cover it up with electrical tape or a sticker.

But, to sort of validate this, if I logged into my VPN, at that point I shouldnt be getting any of this traffic right? or would I still see it because I am physically attached to the cable?

pc user's avatar pc user (2019-03-11 07:45:20 +0000) edit
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if I logged into my VPN, at that point I shouldnt be getting any of this traffic right? or would I still see it because I am physically attached to the cable?

VPNs run atop IP, or atop protocols running atop IP, and IP runs atop the link layer, so the VPN has no effect on the link layer, so you'll still see link-layer broadcasts such as ARP packets.

Guy Harris's avatar Guy Harris (2019-03-11 08:42:18 +0000) edit
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Imaginary problem solved then. Thanks for the help guys. Much appreciated. :)

pc user's avatar pc user (2019-03-11 16:28:00 +0000) edit
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