Constant blinking green light

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Level 1

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Constant blinking green light

Can someone please tell me if it's normal for the green light on the AirPort Extreme to be constantly blinking rapidly when connected to a cable modem when there is nothing else connected and online in the house? The device has been connected to the cable modem from the start, but just recently it has started to blink in a constant fashion all day when nothing is on the internet in the house. I thought the blinking indicated internet activity, so that was my way of always checking to see if someone was on the internet in my house. It suddenly started to blink constantly when no one is on the internet. I unplug it for a day, plug it back in & both the cable modem & the APE now constantly blink like there is traffic on the internet constantly but no one is online.
I have my WiFi encrypted with a 64 character password out in the country with literally no one in range, I find it hard to believe that someone broke into my router, but anything is possible these days!!

Any advice anyone

thanks

M.

MacBook Pro 15" (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.3), 2.66GHz Core i7, 8GB DDR3, Nvidia GeForce GT 330M , 512 MB

Posted on Dec 12, 2010 4:32 PM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

Level 10

185,114 points

Dec 12, 2010 4:38 PM in response to BIGhlrzr

Cable providers have periods where they send constant garbage down the connection, and this will result in the light blinking as if there were some meaningful activity going on.

You can ignore it, or change the option to have the light blink on activity. Solid green is a lot easier to look at. Your choice here.

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Answer 2

BIGhlrzr Author

Level 1

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Dec 13, 2010 10:12 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob,

Thanks for getting back. At the risk of seeming lazy!!! would you know off the top of your head where in the Airport utility is the spot to turn the blinking to constant??!!! I was hunting for it last night & couldn't find it.

Thanks,

Mark

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

Level 10

185,114 points

Dec 13, 2010 10:18 AM in response to BIGhlrzr

Sure, open AirPort Utility - click Manual Setup

Click the Base Station label just below the Printers and Disks icons.

Click Options toward the bottom of the window

Change the Status Light setting to "Always On" (Default)

Click Done, the click Update at the lower right to save settings

Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

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Answer 4

BIGhlrzr Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2010 6:10 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob,

Thanks a lot for your help, that did the trick.

Mark

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Answer 5

Jan 17, 2011 6:12 AM in response to Bob Timmons

If I may jump into this thread, I have an AEBS A1034 that has recently begun a nearly-constant blinking right-light (indicating modem/ethernet activity). This occurs even when all devices other than the modem & base station are powered down. This is the modem-connected base station of a 2-unit WDS. The remote station is not exhibiting this activity. It seems to be a fairly recent occurrence and has launched me into some basic wifi troubleshooting to try & find a culprit.

Can I presume this is a similar "garbage data" incident you refer to and ignore it? Anything else I should look at?

Thanks!!

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