Linksys wireless-G notebook adapter pings Cisco each second

I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
(Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com [198.133.219.25];
Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
this ping?

Thanks.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
> Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
> (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com [198.133.219.25];
> Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
> longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
> my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
> without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
> this ping?
>

seems weird -
there must be some other piece of software that you are running or viewing
that would ping the cisco website ?

"P.Schuman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
>> Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
>> (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com [198.133.219.25];
>> Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
>> longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
>> my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
>> without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
>> this ping?
>>
>
> seems weird -
> there must be some other piece of software that you are running or viewing
> that would ping the cisco website ?
>

No kidding, I can't see why cisco would want however many people own this
card who are online pinging their website.

Adair

On Mar 23, 11:36 pm, "Adair Winter" <ada...@swbell.net> wrote:
> "P.Schuman" <pschuman_no_spam...@interserv.com> wrote in message
> > JustA.MereU...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
> >> Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
> >> (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com[198.133.219.25];
> >> Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
> >> longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
> >> my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
> >> without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
> >> this ping?
>
> > seems weird -
> > there must be some other piece of software that you are running or viewing
> > that would ping the cisco website ?
>
> No kidding, I can't see why cisco would want however many people own this
> card who are online pinging their website.

'Tis true. Given the behaviour that I documented under an obnoxious
heading with the word "Linksys" in the subject line, I'm not
surprised. I can even see how it can be argued to be reasonable!

But I think I I found the solution. The "monitor" can be "closed",
which just means that you press the "X" at the upper right corner of
the monitor GUI window to make it disappear (without any
representation down in the taskbar). It is not considered "off"
because the icon still appears on the system tray. In the "closed"
state (but not "off"), the continuous pings do not take place.

However, if you have a software firewall on the PC blocking the pings
when the monitor is "open", then the ping command will take almost
100% of the CPU cycles. I consider this to be a nontrivial design
flaw.

The workaround is to allow the outgoing pings to that IP address only,
with logged notification, and to close the monitor when you're done
establishing a working connection with the access point. The monitor
is much needed in establishing the connection because of the anomalous
behaviour that I described earlier, under the recent obnoxious heading
with the word "Linksys" in the subject line. I will try to remain
professional henceforth.

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:02:38 -0700 (PDT), (E-Mail Removed)
wrote:

>I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
>Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
>(Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com [198.133.219.25];
>Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
>longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
>my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
>without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
>this ping?

Can I get some additional information?
1. Hardware version of the WPC54G card? It's on the serial number
sticker. v1.0 thru v7.0
2. Any particular operating system? Your news header shows G2/1.0 on
a Pocket PC. What maker and model PDA? I'm curious.
3. What version driver are you using? Looks like every hardware
version has a somewhat different driver and "Network Monitor" version.

I have a WPC54G version something in the office that I can try. I
hadn't seen this behavior, but then I wasn't looking for it.

I don't wanna offer suggestions until I get a clue as to the OS and
hardware version.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:02:38 -0700 (PDT), (E-Mail Removed)
> wrote:
>
>> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
>> Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every
>> second (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com
>> [198.133.219.25]; Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the
>> monitor, I can no longer access the internet. Before I poke another
>> permanent hole in my firewall for this ping, is there a way to
>> operate the wireless card without having this ping? As well, has
>> any other WPC54G user observed this ping?
>
> Can I get some additional information?
> 1. Hardware version of the WPC54G card? It's on the serial number
> sticker. v1.0 thru v7.0
> 2. Any particular operating system? Your news header shows G2/1.0 on
> a Pocket PC. What maker and model PDA? I'm curious.
> 3. What version driver are you using? Looks like every hardware
> version has a somewhat different driver and "Network Monitor" version.
>
> I have a WPC54G version something in the office that I can try. I
> hadn't seen this behavior, but then I wasn't looking for it.
>
> I don't wanna offer suggestions until I get a clue as to the OS and
> hardware version.
>
>
wow - interesting that the card might be running in a PDA.
In that case, I wonder if the continuous pings might be some method
of keeping the card alive vs going to sleep,
or maybe looking for a firmware update... but badly implemented... or ??

The original posting showed these headers...
I see the "G2" agent,
but also the HTTP agent implies Firefox on XP (or is that NT 5.1) ?
---
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1206327758 14592 127.0.0.1 (24 Mar 2008 03:02:38
GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-(E-Mail Removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:02:38 +0000 (UTC)
Complaints-To: groups-(E-Mail Removed)
Injection-Info: 8g2000hse.googlegroups.com; posting-host=206.248.161.221;
posting-account=TZscPwoAAAATEsdxuBRUO_S-6yoNWwFY
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US;
rv:1.8.1.12)
Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)

On Mar 24, 12:45 am, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:02:38 -0700 (PDT),
> JustA.MereU...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless
>> Network Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping
>> cisco every second (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request
>> localhost->www.cisco.com[198.133.219.25]; Owner: TCP/IP Kernal
>> Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no longer access
>> the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in my
>> firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless
>> card without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G
>> user observed this ping?
>
> Can I get some additional information?
> 1. Hardware version of the WPC54G card? It's on the serial
> number sticker. v1.0 thru v7.0

No version designation beside any of the 3 bar codes, but beside
the model number WPC54G, it says version 3.1.

> 2. Any particular operating system? Your news header shows
> G2/1.0 on a Pocket PC. What maker and model PDA? I'm
> curious.

Hmm, that's odd. This is a laptop, Windows 2000 service pack 4.

> 3. What version driver are you using? Looks like every hardware
> version has a somewhat different driver and "Network
> Monitor" version.

To get the driver version, I went to:
Start -> Settings -> NetworkAndDialupConnections ->
LocalAreaConnect4 -> General(tab)

The topmost field is "Connecting using" and shows "Wireless-G
Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2".

The [Un]Install/Properties buttons are grayed out because I'm
using a power user account, but clicking on Configure pops up a
window entitled "Wireless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2
Properties" containing tabs "General", "Driver", and "Resources".

The Driver tab shows:

Wireless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2
Driver Provider: The Linksys Group, Inc.
Driver Date: 18/02/2005
Driver Version: 3.100.64.0
Digital Signer: Not digitally signed

Clicking on Driver Details pops up a Drive File Details window
containing:

Wireless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2
Driver files: c:\WINNT\system32\DRIVERS\bcmwI5.sys
Provider: Broadcom Corporation
File versoin: 3.100.64.0 built by: WinDDK
Copyright: 1998-2005, Broadcom Corporation All Rights

Note that the "I" in bcmwI5" could be a captial "i", the number
"1", or the small "L" -- the file doesn't actually exist with the
path shown. The closes filename in that directory is
bcm42rly.sys.

> I have a WPC54G version something in the office that I can try. I
> hadn't seen this behavior, but then I wasn't looking for it.
>
> I don't wanna offer suggestions until I get a clue as to the OS and
> hardware version.

Any light that you can shed on it would be welcome. Thanks.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:11:15 -0700 (PDT), (E-Mail Removed)
wrote:

>No version designation beside any of the 3 bar codes, but beside
>the model number WPC54G, it says version 3.1.

The hardware version is 3.1.
<
>
>> 2. Any particular operating system? Your news header shows
>> G2/1.0 on a Pocket PC. What maker and model PDA? I'm
>> curious.
>
>Hmm, that's odd. This is a laptop, Windows 2000 service pack 4.

Your news posting header shows:
User-Agent: G2/1.0
I thought that was a newsreader for Windoze Mobile, but apparently the
designation is used by some others. Sorry for the bad guess.

>The topmost field is "Connecting using" and shows "Wireless-G
>Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2".

Do you have two wireless WPC54G v3 wireless adapters showing under:
Control Panel -> Network
Weird things sometimes happen if you have duplicate adapters
configured. Delete or disable one. I don't think this has anything
to do with the pinging.

> Wireless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2
> Driver Provider: The Linksys Group, Inc.
> Driver Date: 18/02/2005
> Driver Version: 3.100.64.0
> Digital Signer: Not digitally signed

Old driver. Go unto:
<http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayo ut&cid=1166859842300&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FV isitorWrapper&lid=4230040888B20&displaypage=downlo ad#versiondetail>
and install 4.100.15.5 1/29/2007.
Looking at the revision history, it appears that you're 5 releases and
3 years behind on updates.

>> I have a WPC54G version something in the office that I can try. I
>> hadn't seen this behavior, but then I wasn't looking for it.

I found the box, but there's no card inside. I'll see if I can find
it, but methinks it best if you would install the latest driver first
and see if the problem goes away.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

~ >> I'm running the Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, Wireless Network
~ >> Monitor v3.1, for the Linksys WPC54G card. It ping cisco every second
~ >> (Out ICMP [8] Echo Request localhost->www.cisco.com [198.133.219.25];
~ >> Owner: TCP/IP Kernal Driver). If I turn off the monitor, I can no
~ >> longer access the internet. Before I poke another permanent hole in
~ >> my firewall for this ping, is there a way to operate the wireless card
~ >> without having this ping? As well, has any other WPC54G user observed
~ >> this ping?
~ >>
~ >
~ > seems weird -
~ > there must be some other piece of software that you are running or viewing
~ > that would ping the cisco website ?
~ >
~
~ No kidding, I can't see why cisco would want however many people own this
~ card who are online pinging their website.
~
~ Adair

Consider the possibility that they guys who wrote the code for the Linksys
card didn't ask the guys who run www.cisco.com for permission to ping ...
but at least they "kept it in the family".

It could have been worse - a certain competitor of Linksys' shipped tons of
their routers preconfigured to query a public NTP server - and worse, to
batter it savagely if it didn't respond in time. Several others have done
this as well.

Aaron

On Mar 24, 6:41 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> 2. Any particular operating system? Your news header shows
> G2/1.0 on a Pocket PC. What maker and model PDA? I'm
> curious.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:11:15 -0700 (PDT),
JustA.MereU...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hmm, that's odd. This is a laptop, Windows 2000 service pack
> 4.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:11:15 -0700 (PDT),
JustA.MereU...@gmail.com wrote:
> The topmost field is "Connecting using" and shows "Wireless-G
> Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2".

On Mar 24, 6:41 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> Do you have two wireless WPC54G v3 wireless adapters showing
> under:
> Control Panel -> Network
> Weird things sometimes happen if you have duplicate adapters
> configured. Delete or disable one. I don't think this has
> anything to do with the pinging.

No. Apart from a number dialup connections that I haven't used
in a long while, I have

* Local Area Connection (wired ethernet, when available, not
used simultaneously with wireless)

* Local Area Connection 4 (Linksys wireless card). Weird that
it is numbered 4, I don't recall what kind of circumstances
surrounded its installation aside from long hours on the
phone with overseas tech support, on many an occassion.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:11:15 -0700 (PDT), JustA.MereU...@gmail.com
wrote:
> Wireless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G V3 #2
> Driver Provider: The Linksys Group, Inc.
> Driver Date: 18/02/2005
> Driver Version: 3.100.64.0
> Digital Signer: Not digitally signed

On Mar 24, 6:41 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> Old driver. Go unto:
> <http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagena...>
> and install 4.100.15.5 1/29/2007.
> Looking at the revision history, it appears that you're 5
> releases and 3 years behind on updates.

Good idea. Thanks for that. I'll have to put it in my back
pocket for the time being. Trying to meet a few unrealistic
deadlines, and not wanting to get into anything new just at the
moment.

On Mar 24, 6:41 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> I have a WPC54G version something in the office that I can try.
> I hadn't seen this behavior, but then I wasn't looking for it.
>
> I found the box, but there's no card inside. I'll see if I can
> find it, but methinks it best if you would install the latest
> driver first and see if the problem goes away.

Thanks, Jeff.