Router Lights

Blink Blink Blink go the lights on the routers.

Back in the days of modems, long before the Internet was a household term, we knew that each time the SEND or RECIEVE light on the modem flashed, a character of data was being transmitted.

Today, routers and hubs flash their send/receive lights as more of a placebo than anything else. The lights flash to show us activity in general, but not specific data being passed.

Science fiction of the past and science of today seems to live flashing lights.  Everything flashes.

These routers have flashing lights that signify traffic, but they could easily be streaming stuff back and forth between our computers all the time.  All we have to go by, is the little LED in my router or modem.  If there was a way to stop the LED, computers could be sending and receiving data without us knowing.  Who's to say they don't have a deal with the operating systems to only flash the lights on some data.